Well Water and Sanitation

[jkpenrod]

This may seem like a very silly question especially to you experts, but is it ok to use well water to sanitize your equipment? I started using distilled water to sanitize and drinking water to brew with because we are on well, have hard water andf I know sediment gets through our filter (plus I can not change our filter frequently enough!). That being said constantly using distilled water is getting to be a nuisance everytime I want to check the SG. I want to rack to secondary, but I do not want to go buy more distilled water. I am thinking if I boil the water from the well and add san star (or similar) then I should be good to sanitize my equipment and rack to secondary. Am I right?

 

[Brew_Dude41]

This may seem like a very silly question especially to you experts, but is it ok to use well water to sanitize your equipment? I started using distilled water to sanitize and drinking water to brew with because we are on well, have hard water andf I know sediment gets through our filter (plus I can not change our filter frequently enough!). That being said constantly using distilled water is getting to be a nuisance everytime I want to check the SG. I want to rack to secondary, but I do not want to go buy more distilled water. I am thinking if I boil the water from the well and add san star (or similar) then I should be good to sanitize my equipment and rack to secondary. Am I right?

I think that you are ok to add the starsan directly to your water without boiling. As long as you mix it to the correct ratio and the ph drops below 5, i think that you should be good.

 

[McKnuckle]

I use well water for all rinsing, cleaning, and sanitizing activities with no issue. I use distilled or spring water plus salts for brewing. My well water is kinda gross (we don't drink it), so I'm probably in a similar boat as you. I have had no issues at all with the above protocol.

 

[jkpenrod]

Thanks McKnuckle, This is what I thought. I think I will stick to the drinking water for brewing, there is no consistency in the flavor of our well water and for brewing I really want consistency.

BrewDude, thanks for the feedback. I think I will go ahead and boi the water for now for a few reasons. I have some LD Carlson Easy Clean I am using now as opposed to StarSan and I think the instructions actually say to add to warm water. We have an induction cooktop so I can bring the water to boil in no time. I just like using warm water to santize and I would just assume boil.

 

[kombat]

Why do you want to rack to secondary? What do you hope to achieve by doing so?

 

[jkpenrod]

Why do you want to rack to secondary? What do you hope to achieve by doing so?

Well I am still waiting for the brew to clear a little. It has been in the primary for 2 weeks now and I have noticed a change in the flavor in that week from a very mild almost sweet flavor to a more hoppy flavor. I personally am not a fan of overly hoppy beers (I do not like IPA's). I want the beer to sit a little while long for more settlement and a clearer beer, but I am not sure I want it to sit in the trub much longer. Not that it is going to tast bad, just not what I like. So I am thinking of racking to a secondary and letting it sit for at least another week to clarify a little more before bottling.

Regardless of whether I rack to a secondary or not the question of sanitizing using well water applies to any process of brewing from primary through bottling.

So let me turn the question around, Why wouldn't I want to rack to a secondary (also phrased why is racking to a secondary a bad thing)?

 

[kombat]

So let me turn the question around, Why wouldn't I want to rack to a secondary (also phrased why is racking to a secondary a bad thing)?

Because it risks exposing the beer to contaminants and causing an infection (which is obviously a concern of yours), as well as potentially oxidizing the beer.

 

[WI_Wino]

I have a tub and spray bottle of star san all mixed up for when I need it. I don't make a fresh batch each time I need it. A one gallon batch will last me several brew days if not longer. We have a well with very hard water but it tastes good, we drink it all the time. I use that for general cleaning. I do use distilled water when mixing up star san as I have found that when I use my well water (softened) it gets cloudy. Per 5 star cloudy is fine as long as the pH is below 3.4 or something.

 

[mabrungard]

Nothing wrong with using tap water or well water to mix up most sanitizers. It should work. However, with Starsan, it will cloud up quickly and leave a nasty film if your tap or well water is hard. Either use softened water, RO water, or distilled water for creating Starsan solutions that stay clear.