Water

[stanley1271]

First, is there a way I can test my own water? Perhaps a kit you can buy?

Second, I am thinking of going down to my local grocery store (Publix for those who have one around) and getting the 5 gallon jugs of water. That should be good enough (not meaning qty, but quality) to brew with right?

Third, since I am planning on brewing for a while I am looking to put in a filtration system under the sink in the kitchen. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for in a system like this? I have read that running just about any water through charcoal should clean out the chemicals that my local water company puts in the water. I live in a suburb so we are not on county or well water.

 

[Shinglejohn]

You can get a water profile from your local water company.
distilled water is ok to use, but you will need to add salts and what not to get a good profile.

Its best to use water from the tap if you have good tap water, in Cleveland we have good water with no chloramines, only free Chlorine. I use campden tabs to rid of that chlorine, and thats all i do.

Charcoal filtration is great, as long as your flow rates are within parameters.

 

[JJL]

1) Send it to Ward Labs if you want it tested. Its like $16 and you will get the results in a week. It will tell you everything you need to know.

2)I'm assuming you are brewing extract, so unless your tap water tastes terrible, it would be cheaper to use that. The quality of the beer isn't going to suffer.

3) Be careful with charcoal filters in the long run. They have a tendency to strip out good minerals from the water without removing much of the bad stuff you don't want.

 

[stanley1271]

1) Send it to Ward Labs if you want it tested. Its like $16 and you will get the results in a week. It will tell you everything you need to know.

2)I'm assuming you are brewing extract, so unless your tap water tastes terrible, it would be cheaper to use that. The quality of the beer isn't going to suffer.

3) Be careful with charcoal filters in the long run. They have a tendency to strip out good minerals from the water without removing much of the bad stuff you don't want.

Ok, contacting Ward Labs. I am going to be moving on to a partial mash probably this weekend. I just did not want to use my tap water as I have read in many places that it can be bad for the beer. My tap water does not taste bad, but I know they put a lot of chlorine in it as they have reported this on the news in the past.

I guess I will go ahead and give the tap water a try. Worse case scenario is that I end up dumping a batch and learning a lesson.

 

[Shinglejohn]

Save the $16 and just contact the water company, they will give you a full analysis!

Chlorine can be rid of with campden tablets, the sulfites bond with the chlorine. Nice and cheap!

 

[Shinglejohn]

Tampa water dept

 

[LostBavarianMan]

I use tap also from Florida but on the south side. I use tap for my boil and then top off with store bought spring water.

 

[unionrdr]

IDK where you live,but here in Sheffield,you can taste a few things. In hot weather,it tastes like flat alkaselser. And natural spring water gallons aren't that expensive around here. I can even bounce over the Crystal Springs & get a 5gal carboy from them.

 

[stanley1271]

Ok so I used the EZ Water Calculator and a report from my local water companies site (thanks Shinglejohn) and it looks like the pH is a little on the high side, but still in acceptable range according to what is on that calc spreadsheet. So I think I will just give my batch a try with the tap water. Thanks all.

 

[IRmeterman]

WRT using purified water from the grocery store. I tried that once and was dissappointed.

I believe that the reverse osmosis process strips away some of the desirable salts much like using distilled water. I've been happier using my local tap water. To de-chlorinate I just put my brewing water in jugs the day before with the tops open, and let the chlorine evaporate. Does anyone else do this?

 

[JJL]

Save the $16 and just contact the water company, they will give you a full analysis!

Chlorine can be rid of with campden tablets, the sulfites bond with the chlorine. Nice and cheap!

Not always. It's a good place to start. If they have it, it's free. But, many city water reports don't list the minerals that are important to brewing. Then you have to ask the water engineer, who may or may not bother to take the time to respond. Plus, with Ward you can test the exact tap you are using for brewing. To each his own, but it was worth the money for me.

 

[JJL]

WRT using purified water from the grocery store. I tried that once and was dissappointed.

I believe that the reverse osmosis process strips away some of the desirable salts much like using distilled water. I've been happier using my local tap water. To de-chlorinate I just put my brewing water in jugs the day before with the tops open, and let the chlorine evaporate. Does anyone else do this?

Definitely use spring water or drinking water and not RO or distilled. I don't have a chlorine issue with my water, but my understanding is that it will evaporate. But, I've never tried it.

 

[mabrungard]

Definitely use spring water or drinking water and not RO or distilled. I don't have a chlorine issue with my water, but my understanding is that it will evaporate. But, I've never tried it.

Spring water and drinking water are not guarantees of their suitability for brewing if you're going to mash your grains. If you're conducting an extract brew, then those waters should be fine for that use.

If you are mashing, then you are better off with either RO or distilled water and building the water to your specification. With spring or drinking water, you're at exactly the same place as you are with tap water...you won't know what is in there.

 

[unionrdr]

Spring water and drinking water are not guarantees of their suitability for brewing if you're going to mash your grains. If you're conducting an extract brew, then those waters should be fine for that use.

If you are mashing, then you are better off with either RO or distilled water and building the water to your specification. With spring or drinking water, you're at exactly the same place as you are with tap water...you won't know what is in there.

But you can bet on what's not in there. I had issues with chlorine/chloromines & such in my last brew. 4 weeks maturing should clean it up after 12 days in primary. 3/13 I finally get to try it.

 

[duckmanco]

So for extract brewing, how important is the water report and the EZ water calculation speadsheet?

 

[stanley1271]

So for extract brewing, how important is the water report and the EZ water calculation speadsheet?

I would think that the type of brew would not matter, but the water quality for all types of brewing would matter. I am currently using a mixture of tap water for the boil and bottled water for the top off. Just put my first mini-mash in the fermenter this weekend, so I am not really sure how this would turn out, but from what I have heard here, it should turn out fine.

 

[msarro]

Save the $16 and just contact the water company, they will give you a full analysis!

Chlorine can be rid of with campden tablets, the sulfites bond with the chlorine. Nice and cheap!

I didn't know that you could use campden to get rid of chlorine, I thought it just sterilized. Interesting.

Also if anyone can't find campden, check and see if your HBS has potassium metabisulfite. It's the same thing, just not compressed into tablets.

 

[unionrdr]

Problems I've seen/read with RO or distilled water is why I tried the spring water with this batch. It's supposed to have some things in it that the lil yeasties like. I'll be bottling that one this Sunday. We'll see in a month.