Giving up on my local water

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

For 3 years I have been blessed with great consistent brewing water out of my tap. Nice soft water that was a blank slate. In the past 6 months it has all gone to hell.

The history of my town water supply is that years ago they had the brilliant idea of putting the town salt storage pile within about 150 feet of the water supply well field. Surprise, surprise it started showing up high in sodium, calcium and chloride. Alkalinity was also fairly high (200-ish). Eventually, the sodium levels exceeded state standards. So 10 years ago they connected to another water company that is fed by a reservoir and they mixed 70% reservoir/30% town well. That water is what I've had for the last 3 years consistently.

It now appears they are messing around with the mix. Alkalinity now varies from 25 to 200+ and calcium varies from 10 to 70. Sodium and chloride are also all over the place. The changes are practically daily.

I started having pH issues about 6 months ago and have since had several Ward analyses done that confirm this variability. I've taken to measuring alkalinity and calcium (Salifert kits) with every brew. It gets really tired really fast.

So it looks like I will be visiting Walmart for RO water from now on. I would just like to say AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH.

Thanks for letting me rant. I now return you to your regularly scheduled forum.

 

[bionut]

It's great that in the USA you can buy RO water at the store. Over here that's not an option. Now i am looking in buying a home RO filter because of my water.

 

[cannman]

RO water on the cheap (well, its $67, but at $1 + Tax + recycle fee, you might be paying up to $1.13 a gallon so, you'll make it up in 59 gallons!

I use this system and my tds always shows 0 ppm. I just hook it up to a standard 3/4" water hose spout and collect the 0 ppm water in my kettle and the heavy water in a separate buckets for plants.

http://www.purewaterclub.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=95&products_id=270

enjoy!

 

[bionut]

Great score, i found some systems for double the money, but with 10-15 l storage tank. I will ask for a simplier one like yours. What efficiency does it have, what RO/waste raport?

 

[Quaker]

the heavy water in a separate buckets for plants.

Never thought of that. My garden may appreciate that. Mine's been going down the drain to the septic.

I temporarily hook my RO system up only as needed and fill up 6 x 5gal buckets plus my 50L conical to stock up for many brew days. I didn't install the storage tank. I run it directly into my conical fermenter. It's mounted to a wood bracket I made which hooks conveniently on the rim while in use. I fill the buckets from the conical as it collects enough each day. I think it usually takes about 3 days to restock my inventory fully.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Cannman, that is a great deal but water at my local Walmart is $.37/gal if I provide the container so the payback would be even longer, not including the purchase of new filters, etc. Of course, the convenience is worth something, too. I may have to look into this.

 

[Yooper]

Cannman, that is a great deal but water at my local Walmart is $.37/gal if I provide the container so the payback would be even longer, not including the purchase of new filters, etc. Of course, the convenience is worth something, too. I may have to look into this.

I hauled water from the store myself, until I started doing 10 gallon batches and needing 15 gallons for each brewday! That's when I bought my RO system. I've had it for a while, and I've never even needed to change the filters or anything. I paid $119 for mine about 4(?) years ago.

I don't have a storage tank, I just run it into my HLT the day before brewday.

It is definitely more convenient than going to the store and hauling 120 pounds of water!

 

[cannman]

Cannman, that is a great deal but water at my local Walmart is $.37/gal if I provide the container so the payback would be even longer, not including the purchase of new filters, etc. Of course, the convenience is worth something, too. I may have to look into this.

Make sure it's Ro/di water and not just filtered water. Take a TDS meter with you and measure it at the source. It should read zero. Ro/di water doesn't taste very good compared to water sold as "drinking water" so it's very unusual to have a fountain available unless you went to a water specialty store. Ask ask ask!

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

It is definitely RO. The machine spcecifically says so and when I did a brew with it a few months ago it read 0 on everything. Yooper and Cannman, how long does it take you to get 10 gal of RO from your filter?

 

[Yooper]

It is definitely RO. The machine spcecifically says so and when I did a brew with it a few months ago it read 0 on everything. Yooper and Cannman, how long does it take you to get 10 gal of RO from your filter?

Mine is rated at 75 gallons per day, but it's probably less than that, if that is optimum. It takes about an hour for 4 gallons, give or take with my water pressure out of my faucet.

 

[cannman]

It is definitely RO. The machine spcecifically says so and when I did a brew with it a few months ago it read 0 on everything. Yooper and Cannman, how long does it take you to get 10 gal of RO from your filter?

What a deal!
My filter is 100gpd... I figure a few hours... It's one of those things "ah it's brew day, leme turn on the ro machine" and check it every 30 min or so.

But doing simple math, making about 20 gallons should take about 5 hours.

Making ro is like the therapeutic portion of my morning

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Thanks folks. I'll check into it.

 

[bionut]

Hi guys,
I am about to buy a simple RO water filter for brewing and i need to choose between the two from the pictures attached. Both are 50 gpd, only the filter cases are different. Should i choose the second one that looks sturdier and pay around 30% more than the simpler one? Any advantages between the two?

 

[doug293cz]

Hi guys,
I am about to buy a simple RO water filter for brewing and i need to choose between the two from the pictures attached. Both are 50 gpd, only the filter cases are different. Should i choose the second one that looks sturdier and pay around 30% more than the simpler one? Any advantages between the two?

I'd go for the bottom one. Has user replaceable elements that are industry standard size. Top one has 2 of 3 canisters sealed, so whole canister must be replaced when the time comes, and the canisters are probably proprietary design (usually means more $$ than industry standard.)

Brew on

 

[bionut]

Ooh, so the top ones needs to be recharged whole, not only the filters. I guess i need to pay more for the long run. Thank you sir!

 

[mabrungard]

The unit in the upper picture has sediment and carbon filters that are small and are more likely to be more quickly exhausted. The unit in the lower picture has larger filters that should last longer and end up being more economical.

 

[bionut]

I ordered the unit from the second picture, thank you too for the help. I will have it next week. I hope that will improve my brewing. Until now i got a lot of astrigency and accentuate hop bitterness. Need to look for food grade chemicals, it will be a pain in the ass over here, but i hope i will manage.

BTW, when i was looking through the web store i saw that they also sell parts (filter cartidges, cases, couples and hoses). After a briefly look it seems that i could get by even cheaper by building myself, but i don't really know how to connect the parts. For others this may be an option.

 

[mabrungard]

Just remember that RO water is not the end of your water treatment requirements. There will still be a need for acids, bases, and minerals to drive your beers in the direction you want.

 

[bionut]

What salt and minerals are a must have? I tend to brew belgian styles and i like hop forward beers, but not the in your face hop bitterness i got with my well water.
I guess Gypsum and Calcium Chloride, antything else?

 

[The_Bishop]

Add lactic acid and possibly epsom salt to that list, as well.

 

[mabrungard]

The 4 items mentioned above plus table salt and baking soda. Those are all I use in my brewing. You will need the baking soda when mashing most dark grists. Modest sodium content is OK in beers.

 

[bionut]

I found Calcium Chloride and Lactic acid to buy. What styles can i brew just with these two? Or when i will need the other two? I am just starting to read about the water chemistry so please bear with me.

 

[Bigarcherynut]

I found Calcium Chloride and Lactic acid to buy. What styles can i brew just with these two? Or when i will need the other two? I am just starting to read about the water chemistry so please bear with me.

Not to hijack your thread but I'm in the same position as you are. I've read a lot about water and after my tests results came back and found my water extremely hard decided to install a RO System in my house. Now I need to learn how to make the RO water right for brewing. This should help me also.

Good luck.

 

[bionut]

The answear for us is a spreadheet about water chemistry. Bru'n Water seems to be the most popular but i didn't got my head around it yet. Just can't find how to input 100% RO water. Until i will learn Bru'n Water i found this simplier spreadsheet http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/
Is very straight forward, just input 100% of RO/distilled water, grain bill, and play with the salts additions until you get a good mash pH and a balanced ions profile. That's what i will do for the first few times until a can get a better idea about this problem.

 

[doug293cz]

The answear for us is a spreadheet about water chemistry. Bru'n Water seems to be the most popular but i didn't got my head around it yet. Just can't find how to input 100% RO water. Until i will learn Bru'n Water i found this simplier spreadsheet http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/
Is very straight forward, just input 100% of RO/distilled water, grain bill, and play with the salts additions until you get a good mash pH and a balanced ions profile. That's what i will do for the first few times until a can get a better idea about this problem.

In Bru'n Water, on the "Water Adjustment" sheet, under "Dilution Water Profile", select RO water and "Dilution Percentage" = 100%

Brew on

 

[bionut]

Thanks! It's a very complex spreadsheet so i didn't saw it.

 

[Bigarcherynut]

The answear for us is a spreadheet about water chemistry. Bru'n Water seems to be the most popular but i didn't got my head around it yet. Just can't find how to input 100% RO water. Until i will learn Bru'n Water i found this simplier spreadsheet http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/
Is very straight forward, just input 100% of RO/distilled water, grain bill, and play with the salts additions until you get a good mash pH and a balanced ions profile. That's what i will do for the first few times until a can get a better idea about this problem.

I have been playing with Bru,N Water for a few weeks. Starting to get the hang of it. I had been trying to correct my well water but many on this forum say It's just to hard and very high in alkalinity and Mg. I decided to install a RO system. Now that I have it in need to understand what I need to add to the RO water to get it to a profile for brewing porters and stouts.

I did try EZ Water but tend to like Bru'N Water better.

Hope you get some answers to your questions.

 

[bionut]

Hi guys,
I am about to buy a simple RO water filter for brewing and i need to choose between the two from the pictures attached. Both are 50 gpd, only the filter cases are different. Should i choose the second one that looks sturdier and pay around 30% more than the simpler one? Any advantages between the two?

It was like they knew i was contemplating between the two systems, after i ordered the one in the second pic they sent me the one in the first pic
Fortunately they acknowledged their mistake and send me the one i paid for, with a bonus sediment filter
Now i have to install it and i will be ready to rock.

Should i flush the carbon filter prior to mounting in line with the RO membrane? I think it will have some carbon dust in it that i don't want in my membrane...

 

[bionut]

I installed my ro water system and it works great. Don't have a tds meter yet though. I realised that my water pressure fluctuate bery much throughout the day, with peak point around the 2-3 pm, and low pressure on morning and evening.
My membrane is 50gpd, so i can't get enough water in the interval when the pressure is ok.
If i buy a 100 gpd membrane and install it on my system will i get an increased ro water output? I have a 400 rejection restrictor if this matters.

 

[ajdelange]

A simple, and less expensive, solution to low throughput is to start collecting water a day or 2 in advance of when you plan to brew.