Inline charcoal filter- a game changer?

[charliethebum]

About a year ago I decided to start playing with my water chemistry. I bought an under sink RO system and started learning how to build a water profile from scratch, with a marked improvement in the quality of my brews. I am, however, a lazy man, and planning ahead to collect the water needed proved to be more trouble than it was worth (for me anyhow.) I also don't like the thought of roughly 50 gallons of drinkable h20 going down the drain to produce 10 gallons of beer so conservationist that I am, I simply went back to spigot water and campden tabs. I recently however had the idea to pick up an inline carbon filter (rv water filter from amazon) and wow! The difference is night and day. About 15 bucks for a 2 pack and my water tastes almost exactly like the RO water with zero waste. Now to convince SWMBO that we need a test kit for our tap water...

 

[RPh_Guy]

The charcoal filter improves taste a lot but doesn't affect the alkalinity or ions levels like RO purification.

I'm lazy too. I just buy RO water.

 

[charliethebum]

The charcoal filter improves taste a lot but doesn't affect the alkalinity or ions levels like RO purification.

I'm lazy too. I just buy RO water.

Yeah, that's why i put in that last line about the test kit. I've never actually considered buying water to brew with that might not be a bad way to go

 

[GrimBeaver]

I've never actually considered buying water to brew with that might not be a bad way to go

Buying RO water produces the same waste as making it at home. It was still made through RO. Any method of purifying water has some form of waste / energy cost. If you have the system already it seems foolish to pay a premium for RO water run through someone else's system.

If your tap water is good enough to get away with just a carbon filter that's great. I did not even bother to get mine analyzed. When the TDS meter read near 600 ppm it was clear simply removing the chlorine was not going to be good enough.

 

[charliethebum]

Buying RO water produces the same waste as making it at home. It was still made through RO. Any method of purifying water has some form of waste / energy cost. If you have the system already it seems foolish to pay a premium for RO water run through someone else's system.

If your tap water is good enough to get away with just a carbon filter that's great. I did not even bother to get mine analyzed. When the TDS meter read near 600 ppm it was clear simply removing the chlorine was not going to be good enough.

Fair points to be sure. The head brewer at the local brewery told me the only thing he does for his water is run it through a carbon filter, and they make some pretty good brews, so I figured good enough for the local pros... That said it would be nice to know the exact makeup of the water I'm using if I were to shoot for a specific profile (NEIPA comes to mind)