I'm thinking of brewing with tap water. Terrible idea?

[tonyc318]

You can add me to the list of tap water brewers. I used to drive an hour to get mountain spring water, but got tired of doing that. We are blessed with soft water here where I live. I just put an inline RV water filter on the end of a hose to take away some chlorine/ metallic flavors from the water. Works pretty well. Brewed a really good Kolsch recently that got 2nd place in its category at a local comp

 

[Johnnyhamer]

I can probably get a better analysis for Baltimore for you.

Thanks, how?

 

[chicken]

I'm also in Baltimore County, and I've been using tap water. I treat it with campden tablets.

 

[hops2it]

Only bad thing about brewing with tap water is that the quality can change especially if your city uses surface water. Not such a big deal if it's an all well water plant.

The old adage "if it tastes good, it's good brew water" is not always true. My water tastes great out of the tap but it doesn't make for good brewing water especially in the spring when ammonia is high and large amounts of free chlorine are necessary to quench it and still leave a chlorine residual in addition to that.

I've had our water analzyed and we get some crazy numbers due to being a lime softening plant as well. I posted my water report here and the experts were scratching their heads like no other. Basically told me to run for the hills and buy bottled water. I did just that and my beer quality went from below average to great instantly.

 

[aproud1]

Thanks, how?

Sorry lost track of this... I can get a water report from north baltimore if you want it? might be a couple of months old.

 

[Mozart]

Ok, I'm completely new to homebrewing, but I do know something about dechlorinating tap water from having an aquarium.

Boiling will certainly remove chlorine by accelerating it gassing off. Then again, simply letting tap water sit in an open container will do the same in a day or two as the chlorine gas will escape.

Neither boiling nor allowing water to stand will remove chloramines, however. These, not chlorine, are the usual culprits in creating that chlorine smell. Some municipalities use one, the other, or both, and sometimes it varies within the same municipality season to season.

I guess in the end I'd suggest just trying it, perhaps on a small batch, and see what happens.

And who knew I'd ever be able to link my aquarium hobby to my newfound homebrewing hobby?