Water water water

[termite760]

The water in our town isn't the best so I don't want to use it for brewing. My first (and only) batch I used water I purchased from a machine at the store where you provice your own jugs. Is that ok? or is there a chance of contamination along the line? The differance is in the cost, I can get 5 gals for what 1 gal costs me in the store. The first batch came out great but after reading about contamination I don't want to take a chance.

 

[Seven]

You are boiling the water when you brew so contamination from the water is not very likely.

 

[maffewl]

you are boiling the water when you brew so contamination from the water is not very likely.

+1

 

[BobC]

I saw a test where they took pond water tested and saw all the contaminates in it. They brewed some beer then tested it again. The second test showed all the contaminates where gone. I think the video was called How Beer Saved the World. So if they can make clean beer out of pond water I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. They did credit the one hour boil as the reason why.

 

[res291que]

The only thing the water quality effects is off flavors in the beer or hitting your mash ph if doing all grain. General rule of thumb if your water tastes and smells ok you most likely are fine to brew with it.

 

[JLem]

The only possible contamination problem would be if you were using this water to top-off a partial boil batch. As long as you boil it sufficiently long enough, you shouldn't have a problem contamination-wise.

 

[JLem]

The only thing the water quality effects is off flavors in the beer or hitting your mash ph if doing all grain. General rule of thumb if your water tastes and smells ok you most likely are fine to brew with it.

I would just add that you need to be really careful about chlorine. If you can taste or smell any chlorine in the water, i would hesitate to use it. Even in small quantities, chlorine can give rise to some pretty bad off-flavors (e.g. medicinal and/or "band-aid" flavors)

 

[dmoore714]

I saw a test where they took pond water tested and saw all the contaminates in it. They brewed some beer then tested it again. The second test showed all the contaminates where gone. I think the video was called How Beer Saved the World. So if they can make clean beer out of pond water I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. They did credit the one hour boil as the reason why.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/how-beer-saved-the-world/

 

[944play]

My first (and only) batch I used water I purchased from a machine at the store where you provice your own jugs. Is that ok?

Yes. It's typically reverse-osmosis from those machines, so has very little mineral content. This is what you want for most extract brews and (with the addition of some calcium) most AG too.

If you boil your top-up water, which isn't the worst idea but probably unnecessary with the machine water dispensed into a clean carboy or bucket, remember that boiling pushes out dissolved oxygen and yeasties like dissolved oxygen when they're in their growth phase.