Well Water to clean

[Gravity]

Hi

I live in an area where the tap water is undrinkable as it is pumped from a well. Its perfectly fine to clean with, brush your teeth with, etc, just not to drink.

When I brew, I use bottled water and will clean with the water from the tap (which is well water). I'm trying to centralize an infection I had a couple brews ago and I'm wondering if its the well water. My last brews have been infection free; clearly i'm still thinking about what could have gone wrong as i'm fairly through with my sanitization

When i'm about to pitch the yeast, I'll sanitize the fermentation buckets and then rinse them off with well water right before i put the cooled wort to ferment.

What do you think ?

 

[Pkrd]

When i'm about to pitch the yeast, I'll sanitize the fermentation buckets and then rinse them off with well water right before i put the cooled wort to ferment.

What do you think ?

You should switch to a no rinse sanitiser.

 

[Gravity]

You should switch to a no rinse sanitiser.

I use starsan for all sanitizing needs. The issue here is that starsan still needs water to get it going. I sanitize with starsan and well water. When its time to pitch, I dump by sanizted bucket full of Starsan and well water and give it a quick rinse with well water. Then fill the bucket with wort, and pitch

 

[Nokie]

There's no need to give your bucket a rinse after you dump out your starsan. Any little bit that's left in there won't hurt anything. It's fine to pour your wort right in your bucket even if there's bubbles in it.
I always thought if I use a cup or so to rinse all my bubbles out then the starsan should sanitize what water I put in. But once I learned to not fear the bubbles I'll rack into a carboy with 3-4 inches of bubbles and have no problems.
I'd stop rinsing if you're worried about your well water. That would be one less thing in the equation.

 

[madscientist451]

I also have well water that I don't drink because it has a slight sulfur smell and high mineral content. I bring jugs of water from a source in town for general drinking and to make coffee. I also use the town water for my Star San mix and PBW mixes, which I keep in buckets.
Its a hassle, but my well water will turn the iron orange color once it comes out of the tap and sits in a bucket for a while.
Like others have said, if you are using star-san you don't need to rinse.
If you had an infection a few brews back and the more recent brews have been fine, and you've been rinsing the bucket with tap water the same way for all those brews, why would you think the tap water is the problem?
My experience with infections has mostly occurred from letting the carboy sit around for months before packaging or from improper handling of the yeast. Any chance those things could have been the cause?

 

[Gravity]

I also use the town water for my Star San mix and PBW mixes, which I keep in buckets.
Its a hassle, but my well water will turn the iron orange color once it comes out of the tap and sits in a bucket for a while.

Is your town water well water? Mine is. I get the orange residue often, which is why i feel i have to rinse the bucket out. Did I read your post right? You let water mixed with Starsan or PBW sit in buckets using town (clean?) water?

I do all the prep work ahead of time and sometimes the buckets will sit for up to 4 hours before they are actually used. In this time, residue collects at the bottom, which a simple dump won't get rid of, so i give it a quick rinse (not to get rid of the starsan bubbles, not to get all the residue out) .

No brewer I know would drop wort on orange residue. Maybe my post is coming off a bit like a rookie, however, i don't fear the bubbles, I fear the slight residue that may or may not have unwanted contributions (bacteria) to the wort.

I could be completely off and looking at the water as the culprit, I figure i'd throw it out to the group to see if anybody has experienced anything similar. Sounds like you are the closest with a similar well water issue. I'd like to think i'm fairly obsessive about cleaning things, which is why i figured i would l look at the one place I can't clean - the well water. I have an Oberon clone fermenting now, so I'll see how that goes.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I think we're missing something.

Why let the sanitizer sit in there for so long if your water leaves a residue? StarSan works fine if you just wet all the surfaces and allow to air dry.

 

[Gravity]

i like what you're saying, wet the bucket and dump. I let it sit as sometimes a bucket of water comes in handy especially if it has sanitizer in it; theres no real reason to let it sit, sometimes i let an airock or some other innocuous items soak - i guess i don't have too. I'll try this a couple of times and see if there are any changes in the results

 

[madscientist451]

Is your town water well water? Mine is. I get the orange residue often, which is why i feel i have to rinse the bucket out. Did I read your post right? You let water mixed with Starsan or PBW sit in buckets using town (clean?) water?

I do all the prep work ahead of time and sometimes the buckets will sit for up to 4 hours before they are actually used. In this time, residue collects at the bottom, which a simple dump won't get rid of, so i give it a quick rinse (not to get rid of the starsan bubbles, not to get all the residue out) .

Yes, I have buckets of star san and PBW mix on hand all the time.
The town water I use has a surface source and is chlorinated/treated at a main water plant.
The well at my house (outside of town) has iron and sulfur in the water.
In my case, the iron is dissolved in the water and when it comes out of the tap and is aerated it begins to oxidize, and will turn an orange color if you leave it in the bucket. The orange color has nothing to do with bacteria. Honestly, the above two sentences are just a guess what's going on, but it seems logical.
Everyone has their own methods, but I don't see the point of sanitizing a bucket 4 hours before you are going to use it. I dump the sanitizer in the fermenter, shake it around, let it sit for a minimum of two minutes and then dump out the sanitizer and then add my wort and the yeast.
It sucks your tap water is full of iron (or whatever in your area has).
Its an extra expense, but you may want to think about getting a reverse osmosis device to use for brewing and sanitation water.