Distilled/boiled water or tap water?

[Beerisnom]

OK, we all know the benefits of sanitation, both in making beer and in life in general. This being the case, it seems strange to me that we are using tap water for our beer. Shouldn't we be using distilled or boiled water? Or is that going a bit over the top and unnecessary?

Someone here told me that if you rinse something that had been Starsan'ed with tap water, than it was no longer sterile. Just seemed odd that the tap water would be OK for the beer in general.

 

[Pappers_]

There are discussions to be had about what water or what modifications to water to use in your boil, but those discussions aren't about sanitation. Any wild bacteria lurking in your tap water will be killed when you are boiling your wort. Generally, cleanliness is an issue before the boil, cleanliness and sanitation are issues post-boil, if that makes sense.

FWIW, because Chicago tap water is generally good for brewing, I use it run through a carbon filter for my brewing water.

StarSan, or Iodophor (the other common sanitizer) when used at the proper dilution is a 'no-rinse' sanitizer, so you shouldn't rinse it after using.

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

Something rinsed in star san was never sterilized. It was sanitized.

Tap water is treated to remove certain contaminants and microbes to a safe threshold, and is not sterile either.

When doing all grain/partial mash, you boil the wort, so most of the microbes/spores/bacteria are killed. The few that are left will be vastly outnumbered by the yeast, and will never be able to get a foothold in your fermenting beer (assuming post boil equipment was sanitized). The important thing here is to remove the chlorine from the water, as it reacts with grains to cause off flavors.

There are "no boil" kits, that you can use tap water on, without boiling. This is because the concentrated wort (LME) has already been boiled and sanitized, so the water composition has little effect at this point. The few microbes that are still surviving in the tap water, will again not be able to outcompete the yeast, and the fermenting beer will produce an environment that is non conducive to bacteria growth, again assuming proper sanitation.

 

[flars]

Contamination, after rinsing a no rinse sanitizer, will more likely be from air borne sources or the handling of the equipment, than the rinse water, unless your tap water is not fit to drink.

 

[Beerisnom]

There are discussions to be had about what water or what modifications to water to use in your boil, but those discussions aren't about sanitation. Any wild bacteria lurking in your tap water will be killed when you are boiling your wort. Generally, cleanliness is an issue before the boil, cleanliness and sanitation are issues post-boil, if that makes sense.

FWIW, because Chicago tap water is generally good for brewing, I use it run through a carbon filter for my brewing water.

StarSan, or Iodophor (the other common sanitizer) when used at the proper dilution is a 'no-rinse' sanitizer, so you shouldn't rinse it after using.

When I'm doing an extract kit, the boil usually occurs with 1-2 gallons, then it gets added to another amount of water in the fermenter in order to reach 5 gallons total. I know that the boil kills any bad stuff in the wort, but are we concerned about the 2-3 gallons of tap water that I'm adding the cooked wort to?

 

[flars]

I top off with tap water, but I have my own well. Never had a problem. Using tap water would be a concern if your water is from a municipal supply. All municipal water is treated with chlorine or chloramine in various amounts. These chemicals can add an off taste to your beer.

 

[unionrdr]

I used tap water for top off at first. Then found local (Ohio) spring water to taste a bit better. & is sanitized in various ways when put into jugs or other containers. Otherwise, I clean & sanitize my 6 gallon better bottle & get it 25c per gallon @ White House Artisian Springs.

 

[chickypad]

I don't do too many partial boils but I've never had a problem using tap water either. I collect the top off water directly from the tap into my sanitized fermenter, add the appropriate amount of crushed campden and mix well, then add the wort.

 

[user 30639]

Barring some sort of contamination like what happened after that chemical spill in West Virginia last year, tap water in the US is safe to drink and is not going to contaminate your beer with anything. Depending on how hard/soft your water is or what the mineral makeup is, it may not taste the best. If you're using tap water, I'd run it through a charcoal filter first to remove chlorine.

 

[fun4stuff]

Barring some sort of contamination like what happened after that chemical spill in West Virginia last year, tap water in the US is safe to drink and is not going to contaminate your beer with anything. Depending on how hard/soft your water is or what the mineral makeup is, it may not taste the best. If you're using tap water, I'd run it through a charcoal filter first to remove chlorine.

FWIW, water in northern ohio near erie was also contaminated for a short period last year by an algae- so much so that people were told not to use it. Barring freak occurrences like these, if your tap water tastes good and is safe to drink then it's fine to brew with. You can also run your water for 5 mins or so to clear the pipes so you aren't using water that's been sitting in your pipes too long, but this probably i also a little overkill.

Now, some do say its better to use distilled water if you're doing an extract brew because the extracts were made with the appropriate mineral content.

 

[unionrdr]

That algae thing was in certain parts of the lake. I forget the details though. I prefered to use spring water anyway. So no problems there.

 

[ktm250]

I have used store bought spring water occasionally in the past.

I have a well, but it is very shallow (less than 20 feet) and sunk into pit run (glacial outwash that underlies alot of the area around creeks here). Lots of sediment and off tasting, combined with iron bacteria contamination, leads me to not like the results I get from my tap water. Shocking the well with bleach does little to eliminate my problems.

However, my neighbor has an artesian well that I have recently been getting water from. Much better results.

 

[Mexibilly]

I started out using spring water with extract kits and never had great results. Since switching to distilled I'll never brew an extract with anything else