RO water

[Brewing Clamper]

OK, so I have a Reverse Osmosis unit at home, could I use this water for beer making? I know the RO removes a lot of minerals so I imagine I would use the gipsum. What do ya'll think?

 

[Beer Snob]

I found this link:
http://www.wqa.org/sitelogic.cfm?ID=872

Sounds pretty cool and it said if you have a carbon filter it will even filter chlorine... not bad...

 

[david_42]

You should also use yeast food, even if you are doing AG. Realistically, unless your water tastes bad, you are better off using it as-is.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

You should also use yeast food, even if you are doing AG. Realistically, unless your water tastes bad, you are better off using it as-is.

Dude, my water is straight up NASTY! That's why I bought the RO in the first place... the funny thing is that my wife works for the local water utility... Ha!!

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Ok, another reason I asked is that I was told that for lagers soft water was good.... I'm planning on doing my first lagger sometime soon, maybe in a month or so. Here's my recipe, let me know if there's anything that doesn't seem right... laters!

Czech Pilsener

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------

02-B Pilsner, Bohemian Pilsner

Min OG: 1.044 Max OG: 1.056
Min IBU: 35 Max IBU: 45
Min Clr: 3 Max Clr: 6 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Extract (Lbs): 7.00
Anticipated OG: 1.050 Plato: 12.29
Anticipated SRM: 4.3
Anticipated IBU: 38.2
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 5.88 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.042 SG 10.51 Plato


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
85.7 6.00 lbs. Alexander LME - Pale America 1.037 2
14.3 1.00 lbs. Crystal 10L America 1.035 10

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.00 oz. Czech Saaz Pellet 3.50 34.5 60 min.
0.50 oz. Czech Saaz Pellet 3.50 2.3 15 min.
0.50 oz. Czech Saaz Pellet 3.50 1.4 3 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP802 Czech Budejovice Lager

 

[homebrewer_99]

I have a whole house water softener and filter my brewing water through a PUR filter. I also use gypsum.

 

[rcbrew]

Shouldn't your water have some taste to it? If you filter the heck out of it, aren't you eliminating one of the characteristics of the beer. Not that I drink much of it, but isn't the "water" one of the selling points of Coors? Instead of using an RO water, wouldn't you be better off buying 79 cent/gal of bottled spring water? Just my thought.

 

[Wolf]

Shouldn't your water have some taste to it? If you filter the heck out of it, aren't you eliminating one of the characteristics of the beer. Not that I drink much of it, but isn't the "water" one of the selling points of Coors? Instead of using an RO water, wouldn't you be better off buying 79 cent/gal of bottled spring water? Just my thought.

No, truly good water should have NO taste, thats the selling point of Coors. (There's a Coors joke in there somewhere...)

 

[homebrewer_99]

Shouldn't your water have some taste to it? If you filter the heck out of it, aren't you eliminating one of the characteristics of the beer. Not that I drink much of it, but isn't the "water" one of the selling points of Coors? Instead of using an RO water, wouldn't you be better off buying 79 cent/gal of bottled spring water? Just my thought.

...what's the chemical composition of the "spring water" you buy? I used to buy it too until 20/20 said most spring water is actually tap water from another area.

Every year we get a print out of our town's water composition. I only had to add gypsum to harden my water. Other than that most GOOD tap water chemicals are within a good range for brewing.

 

[Caplan]

If your Tap Water is really nasty then RO (as you already the unit) maybe your cheapest option.
You can at least then 'add' properties back to your water to suit brewing styles as you say.

 

[david_42]

Interesting, I lived in Sunnyvale for ten years and the water there was great. Las Vegas, now, some days you could drink the water and some days you could use it to strip paint. I had an RO unit there, but wasn't brewing.

Pilseners need very soft water, so you're on track for them.

A good discussion of water hardness with numbers.

 

[Ivan Lendl]

Interesting, I lived in Sunnyvale for ten years and the water there was great.

A good discussion of water hardness with numbers.

I lived in SF for 8 years and the water was great. I got a water report, and even asked brewers at anchor about the water and they dont treat it, so neither did i.
I think if your going to brew super clean pilsners then h20 filtering/treatment is probably the way to go. But for ales i wouldnt bother.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

I lived in SF for 8 years and the water was great. I got a water report, and even asked brewers at anchor about the water and they dont treat it, so neither did i.
I think if your going to brew super clean pilsners then h20 filtering/treatment is probably the way to go. But for ales i wouldnt bother.

Yeah, SF gets Hetch-Hetchy water, which is consider some of the best tasting in the state, but I live in Union City and we get blended water, mostly ground water..which is really hard and not too tasty.... :-(