Water for mead

[Arbe0]

I think I have everything to start my first mead, but the only concern is the water.
What do you guys use for water? The water here is pretty good for beers, I have brewed many award winning beers like irish red and stouts with this water with very little amount of brewing salts. Many times I just add calcium cloride to the water, but for lighter beers I cut it with RO water or use RO just to cut the sodium (Na) level.
Any advice will be apreciated, thank you
city water profile:
Ca=41, Cl=54, Na=40, S04=65

 

[Dan O]

I think I have everything to start my first mead, but the only concern is the water.
What do you guys use for water? The water here is pretty good for beers, I have brewed many award winning beers like irish red and stouts with this water with very little amount of brewing salts. Many times I just add calcium cloride to the water, but for lighter beers I cut it with RO water or use RO just to cut the sodium (Na) level.
Any advice will be apreciated, thank you
city water profile:
Ca=41, Cl=54, Na=40, S04=65

I have a drilled well, but, it goes through a water filtration (softener & acid reducer), so I only use bottled spring water. Saves me the worry of something going fishy & it's pretty cheap, @ $1.19/gallon, it's peace of mind for me. Not sure how much minerals are left for the yeast with RO water, but, I wouldn't use it for mead.

 

[pdhirsch]

I'm curious about this as well. I've used straight tap water (from a municipal water supply, water comes from Lake Erie), filtered tap water (run the lake water through a common Brita water filter), and spring water from the grocery store, but I've never done a really solid comparison test. I'd be very interested to hear results if anyone has done that.

I've more or less settled on the packaged spring water, but sometimes I wonder how long it's been sitting in that plastic jug, and what kind of gunk might be steeping in as a result.

 

[Dan O]

I'm curious about this as well. I've used straight tap water (from a municipal water supply, water comes from Lake Erie), filtered tap water (run the lake water through a common Brita water filter), and spring water from the grocery store, but I've never done a really solid comparison test. I'd be very interested to hear results if anyone has done that.

I've more or less settled on the packaged spring water, but sometimes I wonder how long it's been sitting in that plastic jug, and what kind of gunk might be steeping in as a result.

I see a side by side experiment in your future

 

[DBhomebrew]

BOMM calls for Ozarka spring water. I looked it up and I don't recall the numbers, but it was really, really soft.

I've got two meads under my belt, a short metheglin and a classic 12%. Both BOMMs. For the metheglin, I just used my very soft local tap filtered through a Brita. For the 12%, I salted to arrive at roughly 100 each of Ca, Cl, a bit less SO4 and 30 Na.

Both are quite tasty.

 

[CKuhns]

Spring water or well water not run through a filter or salt. I did use municipal tap water very early on but our mjjicipality has changed their treatment regimen and at times you can smell the chlorine.

 

[Dan O]

Spring water or well water not run through a filter or salt. I did use municipal tap water very early on but our mjjicipality has changed their treatment regimen and at times you can smell the chlorine.

I hate that chlorine smell. I grew up in a town that used it in the drinking water. Tasted like pool water

 

[T Murph]

@Arbe0 sounds like your water supply is already pretty good. I would preboil it a day in advance and let it settle out. The bicarbonate will fall out and chlorine will blow away. That's all you need to do for mead other than yeast nutrient.

 

[Maylar]

Bottled spring water. Usually Poland Springs for me.

 

[Dan O]

Bottled spring water. Usually Poland Springs for me.

Same here

 

[Kevin Gallagher]

I have a drilled well, but, it goes through a water filtration (softener & acid reducer), so I only use bottled spring water. Saves me the worry of something going fishy & it's pretty cheap, @ $1.19/gallon, it's peace of mind for me. Not sure how much minerals are left for the yeast with RO water, but, I wouldn't use it for mead.

I use well water but take it before the filter / softener. you might want to check might be easy to valve it off before

 

[Dan O]

I use well water but take it before the filter / softener. you might want to check might be easy to valve it off before

Not for me. It's hard plumbed with pex. Just as easy for me to buy the spring water. I have hard water, plus trace amounts of radon, not to mention a TON of iron, so, for me spring water is better for my meads. Thank you, though.