Distilling and water

[bernardsmith]

Trying to repair my ignorance: in wine making, I won't use my municipal water - although it tastes fine for drinking, making coffee, baking and cooking - because it does contain chlorine. I use spring water. But when it comes to making a wash for distilling spirits, how critical is it that the water be chlorine free, assuming that yeast have no problem with the municipality's processes for ensuring the water is pathogen free? Will chloro-phenols be present in the spirit if the distillation uses the equivalent of a small pot still? Thoughts? Thanks

 

[doug293cz]

The lowest boiling chlorophenol boils at 173 - 175°C, and the others appear to boil at even higher temps. So distilling should remove (leave behind actually) most of any chlorophenols in the wash.

If you really want to be safe you can add about 300 mg of potassium or sodium metabisulfite (Campden) per 5 gal of water to eliminate all chlorine and chloramine in the starting water. Works pretty much instantly. I do this for my brewing water.

Brew on

 

[hottpeper13]

I have a friend that had wine get the dreaded bandaid flavor that he ran thru a still and it made it worse. Because these are phenol's that carried over it's possible the chlorine will too,after all we boil the wort and it survives into the finished beer

 

[doug293cz]

I have a friend that had wine get the dreaded bandaid flavor that he ran thru a still and it made it worse. Because these are phenol's that carried over it's possible the chlorine will too,after all we boil the wort and it survives into the finished beer

???

Since the chlorophenols survive in the beer after boiling, that means that they did not evaporate. If a substance does not evaporate at boiling temp, it will not make it into the output product of a still.

Brew on

 

[hottpeper13]

Whatever, I pay .03 per gal of RO water so that's what i choose to use. He dumped the distillate because it concentrated the flavor. I'm looking forward to the outcome.

 

[bernardsmith]

???

Since the chlorophenols survive in the beer after boiling, that means that they did not evaporate. If a substance does not evaporate at boiling temp, it will not make it into the output product of a still.

Brew on

Sorry, not clear. There is no boiling or heating anything when making wine. That's why only beer making is referred to as brewing, not wine.

 

[bernardsmith]

Whatever, I pay .03 per gal of RO water so that's what i choose to use. He dumped the distillate because it concentrated the flavor. I'm looking forward to the outcome.

I decided to avoid the problem altogether, and got about 12 gallons of monitored spring water from the local state park

 

[doug293cz]

Sorry, not clear. There is no boiling or heating anything when making wine. That's why only beer making is referred to as brewing, not wine.

I thought we were talking about distilling, where boiling is definitely involved.

So, exactly what did your friend do to the bad tasting wine?

Brew on

 

[mac_1103]

exactly what did your friend do to the bad tasting wine?

I believe that was someone else's friend, but I would like to hear a better description too.

 

[hottpeper13]

I don't know what happened to the wine, but he did make a statement to me one time that he doesn't like to clean too much, so your guess is as good as mine. I have a well so no chlorine in my water. The one and only time I got the bandaid contamination was early in my obsession when I found out you could take the bucket valve and wand valve apart to clean, and I found gunk on both.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

i've never had this bandaid smell or flavor.
for brewing or the few batches i've reduced.
but i actually like the taste of my tap water. not so much in the next city though.
so i get how each municipality's water tastes different despite it all coming from the same spot around here.
It's because it is treated differently.