Stupid Newbie question with well water vs tap water

[BrewBeemer]

City water is good by general standards, sucks by mine as I can smell the chlorine which has been changed to a chloride that will kill your fish. I haven't asked the water district for a report on what is in the water as of yet, will do in the future.
Would it be better to use well water vs a water with chlorides? The well water tastes a little flat with a Ph of 7.1-7.2, me thinks better for a AG brew vs tap water. Am I over thinking this or will well water be better? Opinions welcomed.

 

[abracadabra]

You should consider an activated charcoal filter (aka carbon filter) to remove the chlorine and chlorine by products from your city water. If you can smell it and it kills fish it's probably too high. I would do that regardless of whether or not I used that water for beer.

A swimming pool test kit will measure the available (free) chlorine and can test the PH.

The general rule of thumb is if the water tastes OK then it's OK to brew with.

According to John Palmer's online book @ www.howtobrew.com chapter 15.1 the ph of your water is not important ( for mashing all grain) if you are doing extract then it's probably even less important. So your well water should be OK. Althought depending to the type of well you have you may want to consider some type of sediment filter as well.

 

[clemson55]

Your well water could be high in all kinds of trace minerals that city water isnt, when I had a well it had higher levels of things like iron, calcium, etc. that were all dissolved from the ground. It wasnt anything dangerous but we filtered it all just to be sure before drinking. I dont know if yours is that way as well or if that would effect the beer, my guess is no major impact unless the water already has an off flavor.

 

[malkore]

well water could be full of nitrates and nitrites as well. best to test that.

sounds like your city uses a lot of chloramine in the water, which won't boil off or evaporate like regular chlorine will.