Help a guy out with water issues?

[Sir Humpsalot]

I've moved from Chicago. I am now out in the boonies with a real garage, a real backyard, and really lousy water. It's actually from a well.

Right now, I've got a lot of changes to adapt to. New job, living with SWMBO, lots of stuff to move, setting up a workshop, yadda yadda yadda. At this juncture, in order to keep my sanity, some corners simply must be cut. One corner I want to cut is the whole brewing water issue. It's not that I don't want to learn water chemistry for brewing- I really do! But I've got too much going on right now. I haven't even been around here all that much. I just want to get a couple of brews under my belt at my new home before the cold weather kicks in and I think SWMBO will actually approve of this, just so long as it doesn't take me a day and a half to formulate a recipe. I know that if I read up on water chemistry and everything else, well then that will shoot down any hope of a brew session this week. So help me out.

If I use pure distilled water... what kind of salts and how much should I use for a ballpark brew water?

Should I just buy the 5.2 buffer and fuggedaboudit?

 

[Cheesefood]

Can you get bottled water delivered? I'd go with that over distilled water. You want those minerals in the water to aid in everything from conversion to flavor.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Can you get bottled water delivered? I'd go with that over distilled water. You want those minerals in the water to aid in everything from conversion to flavor.

I suppose I could. Would I be better off buying spring water of unknown quality over buying distilled and adding my own minerals?

Should I just brew with the spring water as-is?

 

[Soulive]

I've been brewing with my local grocery's brand spring water. The only thing I occasionally add is some gypsum...

 

[Cheesefood]

I suppose I could. Would I be better off buying spring water of unknown quality over buying distilled and adding my own minerals?

Should I just brew with the spring water as-is?

You're overthinking it. You can create your own water, but that seems like a lot of trouble. Chances are that the water sold in 1 or 5 gallon jugs is sanitary enough for brewing purposes.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

You're overthinking it. You can create your own water, but that seems like a lot of trouble. Chances are that the water sold in 1 or 5 gallon jugs is sanitary enough for brewing purposes.

I suppose you are right. I'm just a little disturbed by the quality of the tap water is all. I need to just dive in and brew up something tasty.

 

[desertbronze]

Just go with some spring water for now. Add some gypsum if you are brewing a bitter beer.

 

[shafferpilot]

I'd use some tap water, boiled to eliminate nasties and use mostly distilled or spring water from the grocery store. BTW you brew AG right? If you're using extract, the PH and such doesn't really matter much. If your goal is simply to get something in fermenters until you have the time to figure out your water, just do a couple kits and go AG when you're ready.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Yes, I am AG. I've even started buying grain by the sack.

 

[Poindexter]

I say go with the grocery store water.

The "spring" water, not the distilled water has enough minerals in it that I won't rinse my car with it. When she who must be waxed is ready for a spa day Evian has too many minerals.

For brewing add maybe a teaspoon of gypsum to 5 gal of storebought H2O.

 

[Section1]

You might want to check your well out too. When I bought my house I'm at now in the middle or nowhere, my water sucked. I finally went and pulled the thing out and found it dirty as hell. I have a shallow well, not sure of the depth, maybe 60 feet or so. Any way it was all slimy, foot valve was all corroded up, kinda like how a toilet tank gets after several years, not good at all. I was able to scrub the water line and get it clean and dumped an a$$ load of bleach down the well (neighbors recommendation) and it made a big difference in water quality. I didn’t drink the water for about a week and after that time all the smell and taste of the bleach was gone, actually only took a few days but I waited longer to be sure. I did have to drain out the water heater because bleach stayed in there for a while and was hard to get out by just running the water.

I don’t know if that is the best thing to do, maybe using a no rinse sanitizer, couple gallons of cheep vodka, or oxyclean down the well might be better than bleach, dunno.

Hope you find the problem.