Bottled water

[Benjer]

Hi all new to the forum and new to Home Brewing.

First off if you use bottle water does it need to be boiled ?
And if so does the first 2-3 gallons to make the wort need to be boiled or just the last 2-3 gallons. Also on the last 2-3 gallons does it hurt to be refrigerated to help cool the wort.

 

[strat40]

Hi all new to the forum and new to Home Brewing.

First off if you use bottle water does it need to be boiled ?
And if so does the first 2-3 gallons to make the wort need to be boiled or just the last 2-3 gallons. Also on the last 2-3 gallons does it hurt to be refrigerated to help cool the wort.

I never use bottled water, but our water here is moderately carbonate, so just a bit of boiling to precipitate the free calcium carbonate works fine. From my understanding, most bottled water is put through a reverse osmosis filter, so one would have to add gypsum, and also table salt, to most every brew. If your water smells, and tastes good, use as is. If you boil a sample, and it leaves a bit of minerals behind, then boil first, decant off the minerals, then go to town baby...
If your water is truly awful, then use bottled.
Hope this helps,
Tom

 

[seven77]

I never use bottled water, but our water here is moderately carbonate, so just a bit of boiling to precipitate the free calcium carbonate works fine. From my understanding, most bottled water is put through a reverse osmosis filter, so one would have to add gypsum, and also table salt, to most every brew.....

Hrmm... I've been using distilled water. The first batch I ever brewed is sitting in the bottles right now, with a few more days until it should be ready to drink. Are you saying I need to add gypsum or some other water softener if I use distilled water? I never really thought about the water too much when I started brewing, I just read that tastey water makes tastey beer... so I figured pure water would be best.

 

[richanne]

You should not use distilled water for beer because all of the chemicals have been stripped out. It's best to use spring water, if you can afford it. Or you can use R/O water and add some chemicals to it. What is the tap water like where you live? Rule is generally if the water tastes good, use it. If not, don't.

 

[seven77]

You should not use distilled water for beer because all of the chemicals have been stripped out. It's best to use spring water, if you can afford it. Or you can use R/O water and add some chemicals to it. What is the tap water like where you live? Rule is generally if the water tastes good, use it. If not, don't.

Tap water tastes a little like clorine. I drink from a britta water filter, it just takes forever and a day to filter 5 gallons of water with my water filter. I think spring water at wal-mart is 70 cents or something reasonable like that.

 

[richanne]

We have a Britta Water filter that fits over the faucet and we use that water to brew. We do add to it, depending on the brew style. Spring water from WalMart sounds good.

 

[user 574]

I'll chime in with some questions on this... I have a charcoal based filter faucet on my sink that I used for my 1st (and only) batch thus far. Is this cool or am I stripping minerals etc as well. The water here tastes good however I have a water softener so that'd lead to the second question on soft water, good or bad.

thanks

 

[rightwingnut]

I've learned that you want hard water, because it helps to settle out the trub. You should add a water hardener (gypsum?) to compensate.

 

[seven77]

I've learned that you want hard water, because it helps to settle out the trub. You should add a water hardener (gypsum?) to compensate.

From what I remember from my chemistry class long time ago (not much) hard water has a lot of minerals in it such as calcium, and the like.. making it "hard" to work with for plumbers and such. Adding salts to your water like gypsum will "soften" the water, as the sodium will make a resin that the minerals stick to and dissipate.

I'm probably wrong, but I do know that soft water makes for better maintence bills in your plumbing system. As for taste, I prefer distilled, filtered, or spring water.

edit: see... I knew I was wrong somewhere along the lines.. I guess gypsum is a calcium rich mineral, which would make the water harder.