Hot Tap Water or Not?

[GHBWNY]

May seem like an overly-simple question with a simple answer, but is using hot tap water the same as/better than/worse than using cold for brewing? I've always used cold for some reason --- maybe in the back of my mind cold water is somehow "purer" not having been run through a water heater. But is it? I could save a lot of burner time by filling my strike and sparge kettles with hot water to start with, but just can't get past the notion that cold water heated up is better than hot water straight from the tap. Any thoughts?

 

[IkeKrizzule]

Pour a glass of hot tap water and a glass of cold and let them come to room temp. When I’ve done it the cold tastes far superior to the hot and that’s all the answer I need.

 

[cherrman]

Use the hot

 

[ancientmariner52]

The cooled hot water tastes flat because the heat drove out most of the dissolved gases. Shake it up really well and try again. Better?

For brewing, I use cold water because a. I don't have a hot water tap outside, and b. I run my brew water through a couple of rv filters to get rid of chlorine. In the kitchen, I fill an electric kettle from the hot tap, bring it to a boil, then put it in my pot. Much faster and more thermally efficient than the gas range.

If anything, hot water from the tap is cleaner than cold. It's hot, yeah?

 

[user 125772]

You all have sacrificial anodes in your water tanks to protect the heating elements. You may also have significant amount of sediments in the tank as well. Personally, I don’t regard the hot water tap as a high quality water source. YMMV

 

[boasist]

I have a tankless hot water heater, I currently use hot as that is what my ward lab report is off of until I get an RO system.

 

[fragged]

I use hot out of a 15 year old tank. Saves me time(and money as it is NG and my burner is Propane) and my beer is identical in taste as when I've used cold. No other changes to process.

As to sediment, that stays on the bottom, or it mixes with my food too, in which case I'm ok with it also mixing with my beer.

For the sacrificial anode, it's magnesium or aluminum. If magnesium, many add that to beer anyway. For aluminum, if it were enough to be an issue, you'd taste "metallic" in the beer, like the guys who use aluminum kettles do.

These are my theories on it anyway, they help me sleep at night (along with a homebrew, or 3).

Starting to play with water chemistry more, so this won't matter to me soon when I switch to RO, but for now it comes out of the left handle to shave 15 minutes off brew day.