Snow is crystallized water vapor. Made from the same stuff rain is. Rain water is soft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow
$0.02
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow
$0.02
if you use the yellow snow it will pre color your beer for you
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.
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.
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.
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