Water quality

[blaggard]

I accidentally used some of my softened water for a malt extract kit recently... I'm going to bottle it anyways however and hope it is at least drinkable.

I have a reverse osmosis system in my house (so long as I use the RIGHT tap..) and have simply been filling up my fermenter bucket and brewing that with it. However, I am excited to try all grain brewing a few small batches soon and I want to know ---- should I be boiling my water before hand?

It seems strange to me that we go through all this trouble to sanitize everything, and then just use straight tap water.

Can some people please tell me what water they use, for all grain and for extract, and if anyone has had experience with a batch made with softened water (that has not gone through the reverse osmosis filter).

Thanks!

 

[theowlman16]

There are a bazillion threads on here about water, and water treatment. I use my tap water, with a Campden tablet to remove chlorine/chloramine, and then it all gets boiled prior to mash. You will find the full spectrum of people that do nothing to their tapwater, to those that start with DO water and "build" it with additives to find the sweet spot. Your beer might be a bit off tasting...water softeners add sodium and remove calcium/magnesium and other minerals.

 

[mabrungard]

You don't need to pre-boil RO water for brewing. Visit the Water Primer on the Brewing Science forum for simple guidance on brewing with RO water. If you're into it, you can then progress into a program like Bru'n Water that can help you refine your brewing water to better fit the brew in hand.

 

[TheHopfather]

You don't need to worry about sanitation for anything on the hot side. The wort will sanitize itself as it boils, so you're killing off any contaminants at this time. Once you've cooled the wort down, cold side, you need to make sure anything touching it is sanitized.

The only worry with tap water is chlorine/chloramine, which can be addressed with Campden tabs, and unknown water profiles. You should avoid softened water because soft water has added salt. If you don't know the profile of your tap water the best bet is RO or distilled water. This isn't for sanitation reasons, its because that water has virtually all salts (and chlorine) removed, its "blank slate" water that you can build to a profile.

Don't worry about pre-boiling your RO water. You'll see some people pre-boil tap water but this is primarily to remove chlorine and/or drop out some bicarbonate. RO already has these things removed.

 

[myelo]

You should avoid softened water because soft water has added salt.

The OP indicated they have a reverse osmosis water softener. This does not add salt like the other common method of water softening, ion exchange. But it might be good to double check this to make sure which process they actually have.