What is the best water?

[Merleti]

I see so much frustration with water in getting it tested that I'm stumped.?
If you really want to know your waters levels don't most people need to test every batch before they brew? Why not save the testing and ? on other chemicals that may be in it and use pure water? Then add what you want.

 

[b-boy]

A lot of people do just that. I use my tap water (filtered) and cut it with distilled water. I like knowing the composition of the water, so I can adapt it a little. It probably changes over time, but at least I have a rough idea of what I'm dealing with.

 

[Qhrumphf]

If you're using tap water, with seasonal variation and what not the only real way to know what you've got is to test it every time. Which is possible but expensive. Rather than go by an overall average number (what you usually see reported for a given city) what I did was go through my water company's reported history, and average the data month by month, and then I update it every year with new data. It's not as good as measuring every time, but close enough that the anion/cation balances are always close and usually near perfectly balanced, and I'm always within 0.1 of my predicted pH using Bru'N Water.

If you want the ultimate consistency, always brew with 100% distilled water (or at least always with 100% RO water) and build it back up from there.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I see so much frustration with water in getting it tested that I'm stumped.?
If you really want to know your waters levels don't most people need to test every batch before they brew? Why not save the testing and ? on other chemicals that may be in it and use pure water? Then add what you want.

The water in my city can vary, not so much by the time of year, as our water is all snow melt and rain water, but by the source at the moment: if the watershed is producing water that is too turbid, the city switches to back-up wells and aquafers (can be very hard). I have the city water desk on speed dial, and when I am drawing my liquor, I can call and find out, based on my address, where my water is coming from. If it is from the watershed, it's nearly RO soft, so I build it from there. If it's from the well field, I get RO water, or don't brew.

 

[Merleti]

After dealing with a couple of different city water treatment plants this is what I have found. One invited the idea of bringing in water to be tested. Actually encouraged it and worked on understanding the differences of water tested at the plant and water brought in down the line. The other city kept asking me questions why do I what to know about the numbers, what equipment was I using to get the numbers, ect. After that experience I would say if you want to put your trust into someone else with your brew go ahead. For me I do not live in the first city described but the second, so I clean it up before I use it.

 

[ajdelange]

If you really want to know your waters levels don't most people need to test every batch before they brew?

Some of us (but precious few from what I can tell) do that. There are two critical parameters (alkalinity and hardness) which are easy to test for using relatively inexpensive kits. The next two most important are chloride and sulfate and while a good chloride test usually involves a mercury salt there are kits (more expensive than alkalinity and hardness kits though). A good sulfate test involves an instrument (photometer, nephelometer, spectrophotometer) but some clever outfit came up with a test that uses a Secci disc lowered into a test tube. Crude but good enough.

If your municipality draws from several sources (#4) and you have good data (from the municipality) on each of the sources and the sources are distinct enough you may be able to tell which one you are on by a simple TDS test done with a $25 tester.

Why not save the testing and ? on other chemicals that may be in it and use pure water? Then add what you want.

I'm guessing that perhaps a third (?) of home brewers and many commercial breweries now do exactly that. The availability of inexpensive RO systems has made this quite possible and there are many advantages.

 

[TheCrackpot]

I use RO water from a store that specializes in water filtration systems and drinking water. It's $.35 a gallon and it's on the way to and from the LHBS. They even have a self serve dispenser that is accessible 24/7 and fills 5 gal carboys. It's a small price and a tiny bit of hassle in exchange for never having to really worry about my water. I can add what I want (using the HBT brewing water primer, of course. Thanks ajdelange) without worrying about water report accuracy.

 

[TheCrackpot]

A couple hours parsing through https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/ should answer 99.9% of your water related questions. The information is worth it's weight in gold and I will testify under oath that my beers have improved DRAMATICALLY since I began following the advice on that thread. It wasn't until I finally addressed my brewing water that my beers have gotten to the point where they are in the same class as the commercial beers that I love.