Remineralizing RO water for drinking

[WinterWarlock]

I know this isn't directly brewing related, but I trust the expertise of the good people on the Brew Science forum. Anybody out there remineralizing RO water for drinking? If so, what target ppm values are you shooting for in terms of Calcium, Chloride, Sulfate, and Magnesium? I'm planning on using BrunWater or EZWater to calculate some additions. Seems like drinking straight RO water isn't ideal, and my current well water situation is pretty unpalatable (extreme hard water). I figure there's no sense in buying remineralization cartridges, when I'm already familiar adjusting water for brewing liquor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[NSMikeD]

RO is perfectly safe to drink and will not have containments nor parasites etc.

While it is deficient on nutrients, tap isn’t going to give you the RDAs either. You’ll get them from a healthy diet.

Lots of folks use a whole house RO systems or an under the sink RO for their tap water only.

 

[day_trippr]

Well....when I upgraded my RO system to 100gpd capacity I got the bright idea to run a split upstairs to our fridge/freezer icemaker/water dispenser. About a month later the wife and I agreed we greatly preferred our well water to RO...

Cheers!

 

[Beholder]

Depending on what mineral water you prefer, you can use a calculator at the link below, which the gent developed because he had exactly the same thought in mind… I used it myself, but haven’t done side by side taste tests.

https://khymos.org/2012/01/04/mineral-waters-a-la-carte/

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I know this isn't directly brewing related, but I trust the expertise of the good people on the Brew Science forum. Anybody out there remineralizing RO water for drinking? If so, what target ppm values are you shooting for in terms of Calcium, Chloride, Sulfate, and Magnesium? I'm planning on using BrunWater or EZWater to calculate some additions. Seems like drinking straight RO water isn't ideal, and my current well water situation is pretty unpalatable (extreme hard water). I figure there's no sense in buying remineralization cartridges, when I'm already familiar adjusting water for brewing liquor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Drinking your RO water straight up without mineral additions can taste bland, to say the least. However, that's how I make my coffee, except for adding a pinch of salt. You could always replicate your tap water by adding minerals to your RO water and benefit by removing traces of any objectionable properties your tap water contains.

 

[VTX1300]

For drinking water I use one gram Himalayan Pink salt and half gram of baking soda per gallon. Not sure where I found this recipe but it adds back 85 essential minerals and helps balance the pH but not sure of the ppm, I go by gram per gallon.
For coffee water I add 1.65g Baking soda, 1.25g each Calcium Chloride, Gypsum and Epsom salts per 5 gallons. I believe REVVY posted this coffee water recipe somewhere on the Forum so I can't take credit for this one either.

 

[mabrungard]

Rain water only has trace mineralization and there are millions of people drinking that daily. No NEED to remineralize RO water for drinking, but you can remineralize if you prefer that taste. Manufacturers like Dasani and Aquafina do add a little mineralization to their RO-based water products to 'enhance' the taste.

If you haven't tried mineralizing your RO water for coffee, it's a very nice addition. I find that the most important addition is to add baking soda since that touch of alkalinity helps take the 'edge' off of acidic coffees and definitely rounds and smooths the flavor. As vtx points out, it does not take much. I use a very light 'pinch' of baking soda in 8 cups of water to treat my RO water for coffee brewing.

 

[MaxStout]

I prefer to use straight RO water for coffee. I have to de-scale the machine much less frequently. I can always add a tiny pinch of something to the brewed coffee, but I rarely need to unless I have a very acidic coffee.

My Dad always liked a pinch of salt in his coffee, said it was a taste he acquired in the Navy.

 

[Beermeister32]

My Dad always liked a pinch of salt in his coffee, said it was a taste he acquired in the Navy.

My WW2 era Grandfather also liked salt in his coffee. He picked it up after years of drinking coffee in the Navy.

 

[Bobby_M]

I have a squirt bottle of water with a pretty high concentration of calcium chloride, gypsum and table salt by my RO faucet and I'll squirt a half mil or so into a glass when filling. I'm not overly concerned with mineral depletion because I have a pretty balanced diet but it doesn't hurt and it tastes better.

 

[Knightshade]

When I was in the Navy, all the coffee at our disposal was thick as sludge and bitter as hell. That’s why the salt helped if you wanted to sip on something. But if you were on a 12 and just needed to stay awake, just drink it straight and throw it back like tequila!

Having said that though, the thought of throwing additional stuff back into my RO has never crossed my mind. Our tap water…even ice cold is just…so not great. The RO is

 

[VTX1300]

Lifer juice {chiefs coffee} was always strong and black. The only way to drink it. That stuff kept us going for days on end when things got crazy in the engine room. That is how I learned to drink coffee and still do to this day, 40 years later.

Straight RO is just too bitter for my taste so some additions help smooth out the taste. I still like strong and black, just not as bitter.

I was on a reserve MSO so we were usually under manned when under way, 18 hour days were our norm. 6 on, 6 off, 6 on for however long we were at sea. Our longest deployment was for 3 months while I was on board. That was a brutal 3 months at sea. Short time by most sea duty standards, but still a hard schedule.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

There are several under the kitchen sink type RO units on the market now which automatically remineralize water.

 

[Beermeister32]

I suppose you could add back minerals to match your favorite drinking water profile, like San Pellagrino, Perrier, etc if you could locate mineral content reports for those waters.

 

[Jako]

Well....when I upgraded my RO system to 100gpd capacity I got the bright idea to run a split upstairs to our fridge/freezer icemaker/water dispenser. About a month later the wife and I agreed we greatly preferred our well water to RO...

Cheers!

i read this at first thinking you ran it to the bedroom. i was thinking man i love this idea... I plan on putting a tank in so i can run the fridge and not need to run off RO into my kettle. two weeks ago i left the RO system on. did the math think i ran 4 gallons onto the floor...