Water Adjustments needed for extract?

[richl025]

I've been mainly extract brewing (kits & recipes) for a little over a year now, and made some pretty tasty beers (and, OK, a few that didn't turn out so well <G>).

This whole time I've been using bottled spring water that isn't horribly expensive, but carting around 6 x 1 gallon jugs is a bit of a pain... Where I live now I can get water in a 5 gallon jug that looks to be RO water, but I'm concerned about changing the taste of the beer...

I thought I read somewhere that for extract brewing the water doesnt really NEED much in the way of additions...

(I have no idea what my local tap water is like with regards to hardness, chlorination, etc)

What is everyone's experience here? Should I just not worry about it since the extract was originally made with 'brewing water' ?

 

[Yooper]

I've been mainly extract brewing (kits & recipes) for a little over a year now, and made some pretty tasty beers (and, OK, a few that didn't turn out so well <G>).

This whole time I've been using bottled spring water that isn't horribly expensive, but carting around 6 x 1 gallon jugs is a bit of a pain... Where I live now I can get water in a 5 gallon jug that looks to be RO water, but I'm concerned about changing the taste of the beer...

I thought I read somewhere that for extract brewing the water doesnt really NEED much in the way of additions...

(I have no idea what my local tap water is like with regards to hardness, chlorination, etc)

What is everyone's experience here? Should I just not worry about it since the extract was originally made with 'brewing water' ?

RO water is perfect, and if it's cheaper for you then all the better!

Your tap water may or may not be suitable, depending on what's in it. But RO water is a blank slate, so it's perfect all the time.

 

[Cyclman]

RO water for extract is perfect.

You could do a small batch of a light flavored beer with tap- use campden tabs to eliminate the chlorine / chloramines. If a lightly flavored beer turns out OK, you're probably all good.

 

[MaxStout]

Buying RO water bulk from stores will be a lot cheaper than buying gallon jugs of spring water. Here, it's $0.37/gal vs. ~$1.00/gal. And RO will be just fine for extract brews.

 

[unionrdr]

Unless you have some kind of spring water place nearby. We have White House Artisian Springs around NE Ohio & their water is 25c per gallon. So I take my 6 gallon BB & put 5 gallons in it, then 2 one gallon jugs. Just be sure they're cleaned & sanitized before going to fill them.