First time AG - water and aeration question

[monty3777]

I have been using bottled water for my extract brews - knowing that the minerals from the water are left over after the water is extracted. So no worries. But now that I am doing AG - should I worry about bottled water and the lack of minerals that me be filtered out?

Aeration (sp?) - I don't have any pumps, etc., should I worry about this on my first brew?

Thanks!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Aeration, no. The only time you need to worry about this is after fermentation is started. Theres a lot of talk about hot side aeration, but as long as you don't do a TON of splashing, you'll be fine. I've never had a problem and I don't use pumps.

As for bottled water, I would think you'd be fine, but I don't know a whole lot about the chemistry side of brewing. I have good tap water, so I always come out at around 5.2-5.4 pH after my mash.