Water (Tap or Spring) for first BIAB

[Mothman]

I'm getting prep'd to try my first all-grain brew (BIAB) in the next few weeks hopefully... just waiting on a brewing buddy who is emptying his kegs so he can do up another batch with me on the same day.

I've done 2 batches so far, both extract + steeping. First was done at my buddies place with his tap water, second was done at my home with my tap water. Different cities, different water sources, both brews turned out nicely.

Moving forward I understand that water chemistry is somewhat more critical for all-grain than for extract brewing.

I know there are many who say if the tap water tastes fine use it, and also many who say just spend a few bucks on spring water to be safe, especially for all-grain... and then there are those who build their water profile from the ground up.

I don't want to do the latter, that's too complicated for me.

My plan is to go ahead and use tap water for the first brew and see how it goes, and then on subsequent brews, if I figure it'll help, I can try spring water.

*But*, my main question is.... will there be anything glaringly obvious in the brew, if the tap water is a weak link? As a noob brewer moving to all-grain, will I be able to tell , either during the brewing process, or when drinking the result, if I might want to think about my water source?

Or is this the kind of question that I could really only answer after doing several more batches?

 

[mongoose33]

No, no, no. Do not use your tap water unless you know what's in it. If your brew doesn't turn out, is it something you did, or the water?

I have very hard tap water. It's good for brewing, say, a nice dark beer like a stout. It is not good for brewing things like pale ales, ambers, lagers, etc.

Very hard, alkaline water needs to have its pH brought down to the 5.2 to 5.6 range. Very dark malt is much more acidic than light colored malt, thus if the water is very alkaline, a dark recipe (stouts, say) will work. But if it's a light recipe, you won't bring the pH down enough, and your mash will suffer as well as your final product.

You are far better off to do RO water bought from the store if you don't know what's in yours, and add salts and such as necessary to get it to what you need. The old saying "if it tastes good it'll brew good beer" is absolutely wrong. It might, but that would be luck. In my case, no.

FWIW, I don't know what "spring" water means, which means....it's the same as your tap water, perhaps.

If you post the recipe you plan to use, amounts and such, we can give you an idea of the water profile you need to have.

 

[zgja2]

I think using tap water is just fine when starting out. It should make decent beer. One thing i cannot stress enough (and you will def be able to tell if you dont) is to get the chlorine and chloramine out of your water. Chlorine can be be treated with half a camden tablet for a 5 gal batch or filter your water. Chloamine has to be filtered out and must be done so with carbon. Make sure to run it through quite slowly.

You can call the water treatment facility in your town to find out which they use.

To be double safe i filter and use camden.

Get a water report though and start adjusting water as soon as you can. You will not regret it

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I'm from the 'if your can drink the water, you can brew with it' school. This goes for most of the brewing you do - extract or all grain. Not sure why the divide. I'm fortunate to live in a water district that has fantastic tasting water so I brew from the tap 99% of the time. The only time I mess with chemistry is when I want to make a beer as close to the original as possible and their water is going to be very different.

This is a good reference for duplicating the water profile of different locals.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/water-profiles/

 

[Revvy]

I'm from the 'if your can drink the water, you can brew with it' school. This goes for most of the brewing you do - extract or all grain. Not sure why the divide. I'm fortunate to live in a water district that has fantastic tasting water so I brew from the tap 99% of the time. The only time I mess with chemistry is when I want to make a beer as close to the original as possible and their water is going to be very different.

This is a good reference for duplicating the water profile of different locals.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/water-profiles/

I'm from this school too, I'm surrounded by some of the best water in North America- the Great lakes... BUT I will say that if your water is heavily chlorinated treat it with a campden tablet.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I think using tap water is just fine when starting out. It should make decent beer. One thing i cannot stress enough (and you will def be able to tell if you dont) is to get the chlorine and chloramine out of your water. Chlorine can be be treated with half a camden tablet for a 5 gal batch or filter your water. Chloamine has to be filtered out and must be done so with carbon. Make sure to run it through quite slowly.

You can call the water treatment facility in your town to find out which they use.

To be double safe i filter and use camden.

Get a water report though and start adjusting water as soon as you can. You will not regret it

You can get rid of chlorine by simply boiling the water for about 15 minutes (not chloramine though).

Both chlorine and chloramine can be removed with potassium metabisulfate (campden tab). One tab is good for up to 20 gallons.

 

[RedlegEd]

Mothman, I used my Google-foo skills and found the water in your town is relatively hard (120-130 mg/L,) so your tap water might be just fine for a darker beer. Their web site also said they use UV and chlorine to treat their water, so as @Floppyknockers and others said, use 1/4 campden tablet per 5 gals to remove the chlorine. If you want to see for yourself, here's their website. Ed

 

[mongoose33]

I'm from the 'if your can drink the water, you can brew with it' school. This goes for most of the brewing you do - extract or all grain. Not sure why the divide. I'm fortunate to live in a water district that has fantastic tasting water so I brew from the tap 99% of the time. The only time I mess with chemistry is when I want to make a beer as close to the original as possible and their water is going to be very different.

This is a good reference for duplicating the water profile of different locals.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/water-profiles/

I'm from this school too, I'm surrounded by some of the best water in North America- the Great lakes... BUT I will say that if your water is heavily chlorinated treat it with a campden tablet.

Here's where I think the divide originates: some people have water that *is* good for brewing. They're the ones who agree, if it tastes good, you can brew with it. That's their experience.

There are others of us, though, whose water does not meet those criteria. Mine is an example of that. It *does* taste good, to my taste, but it's very hard and inappropriate for all but the darkest beers.

Further, if water is softened (mine is), it often is inappropriate.

The old bromide "if your water tastes good you can brew good beer" is only true if your water is suitable for brewing and brewing particular recipes, and is not just suitable for tasting.

This is why I urged OP to get his water right. How many new brewers gave it up because their water was not suitable for brewing? Throwing the dice on something like this is just gambling. Being an educator, I prefer that people be successful, and not just by luck.

My 2 cents. Which, btw, I am not betting on someone's water being suitable.

 

[Mothman]

Damn, so much for a quick, easy question. Hahahah!

I really do not want to get into having to build my own water... that just sounds too much like work, and I'm in this for enjoyment. If my all-grain beers turn into flops, I will have to rethink. lol

I think if that happens, I'd try going down to Walmart and buying a couple jugs of their spring/mineral water or whatever if is and hope that is fine. Then if that fails I'd have to go deeper down the rabbit hole of Brewing = Chemistry.

I'm gathering from the replies though, that me being able to actually KNOW if my water worked against me, might be hard.... but having said that... I guess if the beer tastes good, then why worry? If it doesn't taste good, I'll poke around here more to try to figure out why, and if the water played a role.

That was the main purpose of my post.... I'm set on trying with tap water to start (my tap water tastes good, sooooo.... lol), and was wondering if there are any clear-as-mud 'bad' results that would tell me quite easily that the water was a problem...?

 

[Mothman]

Mothman, I used my Google-foo skills and found the water in your town is relatively hard (120-130 mg/L,) so your tap water might be just fine for a darker beer. Their web site also said they use UV and chlorine to treat their water, so as @Floppyknockers and others said, use 1/4 campden tablet per 5 gals to remove the chlorine. If you want to see for yourself, here's their website. Ed

Google-foo!

I do live in Kelowna, but we have multiple water providers, and I'm not on Kelowna city water.

My provider has some water reports from last year here: http://www.bmid.ca/water-quality/full-parameters.aspx?OpenMediaFolderId=1942

I don't understand any of it.

 

[Mothman]

One thing i cannot stress enough (and you will def be able to tell if you dont) is to get the chlorine and chloramine out of your water.

Yeah, I may do campden regardless, as it seems an easy bit of "why not?".

I didn't use it on either of my first two brews, and I can't tell that there is any problem with them, they taste fine to me, but the tablets are cheap, and it's easy, so why not, right?

Am I correct that to use campden, you just smash up a partial tablet, stir it into the water, and let it sit for a few minutes before use?

I only do about 3.5 gallon batches, so only need about 5 gallons of water... I'm guessing half a tablet of campden is plenty.

 

[mongoose33]

Here's how hard it is to build water. A friend of mine wants to brew an APA. His recipe has:

8# 2-row
1# Munich
.5# Crystal Malt 60L

I won't go into the hops as they're not germane to the mash.

Here's what he'd need to do with that grain bill doing BIAB. Using 7.25 gallons of RO water to start, add to the water:

5 grams Calcium Chloride
5 grams Epsom Salt
3 ml Lactic Acid

Using EZWater, that predicts a pH of 5.32, which is fine. You'll be close, and that's good enough.

That's how hard it is to do this.

Water is a strange thing. Some people make it out to be a hugely complicated issue, but it doesn't have to be. If I were brewing the recipe above with RO water, that's how I'd adjust it.

Yes, it can be more complicated than that, but it doesn't have to be.

So.....you can go to the local homebrew store and pick up those items if you brew this recipe, and have a very good chance of producing a very good beer. Or you can take your chances.

In the end, it's your life; what you should do is what makes you the happiest. If it's not my choice, I won't think less of you.

 

[Mothman]

Cheers, Mongoose.

I'm sure it does become second nature with time.