Collecting Snow To Use as Water

[evanmars]

Snow is crystallized water vapor. Made from the same stuff rain is. Rain water is soft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow

$0.02

 

[Schumed]

update to my attempt...made an imperial IPA ...smash ...pale ale and galaxy ...tastes pretty good ....not outstanding like other IPAs I've done ...going to serve it at an upcoming festival where they are having a homebrew tent ...it's a solid give away beer that will have an interesting name and people will want to try it


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[Cyclebrew]

Ha, my homebrew buddy and I made a Bavarian hefeweizen a couple weeks ago after a huge dump of snow. The locale was well away from the city, but there was probably a fair amount of wood smoke particles in the snow since it was cold. Also, there was a couple rocks and a leaf...so I must have dipped a little deeper than I thought during gathering.

The beer smelled great in the fermenter, tastes good so far, and I would love to repeat the process again.

Update: the water was super soft, thus the beer is smooth, maybe a little too much so, but still worth it.

 

[rskelhorn]

Using snow for brew would be a great way to clear off my deck lol...

 

[BWE]

Before I saw this I posted close to the same thing about using river water from and extremely clear river. Man, if you have the time and money, why not. I plan on experimenting with the river water. If it tastes terrible, oh well, it's just 5 gallons and not that much time lost. I say go for it.

 

[BigFloyd]

if you use the yellow snow it will pre color your beer for you

DON'T use the yellow snow!! That's what they use in Bud. You surely wouldn't want that.

 

[dragginrabbit]

You don't need to boil it before brewing with it. Its going to be safe to drink right after melting it. Im a survival instructor in the Air Force and have never and will never boil water from snow to make it safe to drink. If you still want to boil it, bring it to a boil, turn heat off and let it slowly cool for about 10 min. That will pasteurize the water. If your worried about pollution a reverse osmosis would help with that. If you want to do this you are going to need a lot of snow. Snow to water is about 10:1 with a little wiggle room depending on how wet or dry the snow is. I personally wouldn't be to worried about any contamination. I think it's a great idea. Maybe brew a high alcohol ice beer. Good luck.

AF member here. S.E.R.E Instructor?

You contradict yourself. You say you "have never and will never boil water from snow to make it safe to drink". "Then say "I think it's a great idea." Ummmmm you wouldn't but tell him it's a great idea? I'm just trying to find your logic behind this.

Anyway, if OP is going to do this, boil the **** out of it and see what comes of it. Brew a small batch and see what comes of it.


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[Token]

dragginrabbit, I think you've taken KGB09's words out of context. He says there is no need to boil snow to make it safe to drink. Then he offers up suggestions to easy people's minds about consuming snow if they have any trepidation about it. He says he thinks using snow for brewing is a great idea.

I see no contradictions here, just a lot of good info.

 

[Flboy]

One thing to consider. Depending on your local and prevailing winds, snow can contain higher than normal levels of radioactive iodine. Japan is apon us. We are seeing significant kills in the Pacific Ocean, and even St Louis had a pretty high exposure. Bad timing of contaminated jet stream and heavy rain. japan radiation leak map

(japan radiation leak map) I tried to make tha a link, but couldn't.
We have a real nightmare going on over this! Just the past few weeks there was another oops. 100metric tons of highly radioactive water was "leaked" into the ocean. Hope not too off topic.

 

[dragginrabbit]

dragginrabbit, I think you've taken KGB09's words out of context. He says there is no need to boil snow to make it safe to drink. Then he offers up suggestions to easy people's minds about consuming snow if they have any trepidation about it. He says he thinks using snow for brewing is a great idea.

I see no contradictions here, just a lot of good info.

Ah ok I guess I did. On with the brewing!


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[BeerGrylls]

One thing to consider. Depending on your local and prevailing winds, snow can contain higher than normal levels of radioactive iodine. Japan is apon us. We are seeing significant kills in the Pacific Ocean, and even St Louis had a pretty high exposure. Bad timing of contaminated jet stream and heavy rain. japan radiation leak map

(japan radiation leak map) I tried to make tha a link, but couldn't.
We have a real nightmare going on over this! Just the past few weeks there was another oops. 100metric tons of highly radioactive water was "leaked" into the ocean. Hope not too off topic.

But just think of the novelty of glow in the dark beer!