Opinions on using spring water...

[kaj030201]

...for brewing?


What do YOU think? Is it worth the $$ to buy good spring water, or do you prefer to boil your tap water, or do you have really good tap water already (if so, lucky you!!)

Spring
Boiled Tap
Tap

 

[bradsul]

It will make good beer, no doubt. So if you think the money is worth it I would go for it. If you are not happy with your tap water I would also go for it.

I have pretty good city water here so I just run my brewing water through an inline brita faucet filter and I'm a happy camper.

 

[BierMuncher]

Distilled water is about 88 cents a gallon at our local grocery store.

I used to use it for Extracts. You throw three of the gallons into the freezer at the start of the brew and it makes chilling your wort a lot easier.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

My tap water is really not at all tasty. I use 2:1 RO water to tap. That works pretty well...

 

[mwndragon]

I normally just use 6 gallons of the bottled water from Walmart, a whole 64 cents a gallon, now its more than likely nothing special, just filtered, but at 64 cents, I don't complain. I normally get a big bag of ice and put 4 gallons and the ice in a big cooler I have the day before I'm brewing, and then use the ice that's left in the cooler to cool the brew pot down. So far no problems.

 

[ajf]

What about a water filter attached to the tap? Lots of people use those successfully.

-a.

 

[malkore]

I have great water for dark beers. Its not ideal for lighter beers, but I didn't have problems with the first Kolsch I made...in fact I got less efficiency from the 2nd Kolsch I made that included pH 5.2

I don't even worry about the chloramine.

 

[LouT]

I got an off taste from chloramine here, so I switched to spring water. I stock up when it goes for 2 gallons/$1.00. So far so good!

 

[DarinB]

I use spring water, and it makes very good beer (ok, at least I like to think so... ;o) )

However...I have a family connection to a natural spring bottling company, and get it dirt cheap (less than 2 buck for 5 gallons).

Before that, I used distilled water from the grocery store...

 

[shafferpilot]

the water here in Cincy tastes fine, but a PH test reveiled that it was WAY alkaline (8.6). Trying to get a water report proved very difficult as the people that answer the phone only have access to the propaganda pamphlets that only tell a fraction of the whole story. With more specific information, salts can be added to straighten out the PH. Without that info, you're just guessing; so my only other option was bottled water. I use distilled water for the mash, but I use tap water through a filter and boiled for the sparge. Seems to work well.

 

[Bulls Beers]

Distilled water is about 88 cents a gallon at our local grocery store.

I used to use it for Extracts. You throw three of the gallons into the freezer at the start of the brew and it makes chilling your wort a lot easier.

+1..
I do this and it cools the wort down very fast...

 

[DeathBrewer]

tap water, all the way (one of those lucky guys)

 

[kaj030201]

so it looks like spring water is preferred, but tap water works fine for some, too. i have always used tap, so I think i will try spring for the next brew.