Ro water for AG

[Dr. Fedwell]

I am going to brew my first AG beer this weekend. I have done some partial mashes, and I think the efficiency was good (on the three pounds of grain I mashed). These were all done with water from a machine. The machine uses RO filter plus UV. Is this water too devoid to mash for ales. I can't compare the outcome to my PM batches because they had six or seven #s LME added. I think Edwort said he uses the water from the machines.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Check it out this and this.

 

[Brew-boy]

Most people will tell you not to use RO for all grain. One member in our brew club only uses RO water and has won several first place medals/ribbons with his beer. Myself I buy RO water at Walmart through the machine but I add minerals back into the water to match a style that I am brewing. I been very happy with this so far and for .33 cents a gallon I wont go back to spring water.

 

[malkore]

If you use RO, you need to reconstitute it with magnesium, calcium, and some bicarbonates (if not other things). RO water gets you to baseline, and then you need to recreate the specific brewing water from the region your style comes from.

especially if its RO/DI water, which actually doesn't support life well at all.

Most people feel that if their tap water is drinkable, its brewable. Hell I don't even remove the chloramine from my water.

 

[Bugeaterbrewing]

Success using all RO water will depend a lot on your grain bill. Dark grains will lower the ph of your water while the lightly kilned grains will have little effect on ph. If your ph is outside the range of about 4.8- 5.8, your conversion efficiency will suffer.

Also certain minerals will affect how various flavors come out in your final brew. For example, sulfates will emphasize hop bitterness.

Yes you can do all grain with all RO water, but your results will be variable. I have incredibly hard water here, but fortunately no chlorine. I purchased an RO filter specifically for brewing. For about half my brews I will use either a 50/50 or 25/75 mixture of tap and RO water so I can get the needed mineral ions. For the rest of them I use all RO water but add back the needed minerals for whatever style I am brewing. To determine the mineral profile I use this chart from an old issue of Zymurgy Magaine. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/wrucksterpage/waterqal.htm

Due to small amount of minerals needed, I use a cheap jewelers scale to get the accuracy needed for measuring the stuff.

The simple solution would be to use a mixture of both RO water and bottled spring water (3 or 4 gallons of RO to about 2 or 3 gallons of spring water). If your tap water is at all good, I would use that instead of the spring water. If you have chlorine or chloramines in the tap water, you will need to get those out of the water before use.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company