Garden Hose + Filter = ???

[hosemaster]

Hey all. I may have screwed up my last two batches and wanted to know if anyone had thoughts. I've always used bottled water but picked up a MoreBeer water filter a few weeks back. I used my garden hose with it, not realizing that using the garden hose was still probably a bad idea. Do you think the water filter will clean up anything nasty from the garden hose?

One batch is a hoppy pale ale and one is destined to be a sour. If taste is the biggest concern, I can finish off the pale ale and taste it to see if it's OK but I don't really want to dedicate the time and space to the sour if the consensus is it will probably turn out poorly.

Or should I just Relax, Don't Worry, and Drink Some Hose Brew?

Thanks all.

 

[MrFeltimo]

It probably wasn't a good idea, even with the filter.
However whats done is done, taste it and decide.
Anyhow you should be naming that HOSE BREW.that was funny.

 

[azazel1024]

Mostly the later. That said, if you pull some water off the hose with the filter on and drink it straight, do you get a "garden hose" taste? If so, that will carry over to greater or lesser extent to your HB.

The biggest issue with garden hoses and that taste, is that the materials used in garden hoses will "dissolve" in to the water to some extent (even if ppb) and they can be tasted.

The only really big issue is if you used water that had been stagnant in the hose for awhile. If you had run water out of the hose so it was fresh out of the tap, then probably nothing (I generally can't taste a garden hose taste from garden hose water if it is fresh water out of the hose. If it is water that has sat in the hose for awhile, I can taste it easily). The volatiles that dissolve in to the water are also not good for you, which is kind of another reason not to use hose water for drinking/brewing, though it isn't likely to kill you (though maybe just give you cancer if that is your only source of water for years and years).

 

[brick_haus]

Not sure what you're results will be, but I use a hose designed for drinking water. Available at any RV or marine store.

 

[Teromous]

I've used a garden hose with a home-made pvc carbon filter on the end for countless brews without any issues. Smell and taste your water sometime.

 

[Califonia]

Is the garden hose itself the only issue in this scenario? If you omitted the hose and hooked the filter directly up to the spigot would that be an issue? I've always had a hose adapter on a sink inside and then had to carry buckets full of water through the house. It would be nice to just be able to fill up the kettle outside, but I've always been paranoid about using bad water.

 

[BrotherGrim]

I am also in the RV hose and RV inline filter crowd. I am not trying to replicate a beer from Wunschhausen on the Ingeln River in lovely Rugenbergenstien so I believe the simple philosophy of "If your water tastes good, it will make good beer."

After the trip through the rv hose and the filter, the water tastes just fine, and judging by how fast my friends can consume my beer, so does my beer.

 

[zmanzorro]

My brew team and I use a garden hose with a filter and no problems. Even won a few competitions with it.