What should I do with this water?

[treacheroustexan]

I received 50+ gallons of Distillata Artesian Spring water from work today (free of sodium, chlorine and calories, it’s delivered fresh each day from a naturally free flowing spring in rural northern Ohio... this was the description from their website) Figured I would use it to brew with since I just moved into a house and haven't seen my water report yet. What styles would this water work best with?

 

[ajdelange]

I suppose it is gluten free too?

As I have no idea what the mineral composition of the water is (other than it contains no sodium) I have no idea how to advise other than to recommend throwing it out and obtaining 50 gal of RO water. You could, I suppose, send a sample off to Ward Labs but unless you intend using it on a regular basis I don't think that would be a very good investment.

 

[treacheroustexan]

I suppose it is gluten free too?

As I have no idea what the mineral composition of the water is (other than it contains no sodium) I have no idea how to advise other than to recommend throwing it out and obtaining 50 gal of RO water. You could, I suppose, send a sample off to Ward Labs but unless you intend using it on a regular basis I don't think that would be a very good investment.

Not using it on a regular basis but I wasn't going to pass it up. My tap water is drinkable, so I suppose I could atleast split the water 50/50 (tap and distilled).

 

[Waterlogd2005]

Distilled water is good for cleanup and for mixing with the sanitizer. You'll want to add minerals to brew with as certain minerals lead to better beer.

 

[SpeedYellow]

You haven't given us the mineral content of either your tap water or this mystery water, so we can't really give useful guidance.

You're assuming this mystery water is better than your tap water, but we have no basis for that.

 

[ajdelange]

Hold on a second folks. It's Distillata Artesian Spring. Not distilled water. As far as I know springs do not emit distilled water (close as they may get in the PNW). I'll bet Distillata and Artesian were both picked by the marketing department.

 

[frozyn]

Have you contacted the company that bottled it to see if they have a water report that you can use to build a profile?

 

[kev211]

Maybe give the company a call? They seem to have a pretty decent and informative website so maybe they could shed more light on the mineral content. Otherwise I would probably toss in some gypsum and maybe some epsom salt.

 

[logdrum]

Strongsville uses CLE water:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7097257#post7097257

Not sure whats in the Distillata, but I used to occasionally use White House spring water & their alkalinity is actually higher than CLE.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Strongsville uses CLE water:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7097257#post7097257

Not sure whats in the Distillata, but I used to occasionally use White House spring water & their alkalinity is actually higher than CLE.

Yeah i know but I just bought a house.. not in Strongsville.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Bottom line is that you don't know what's in your water and you don't know what's in this magical water. Therefore using one is just as good as the other. Seems to be easier/quicker to get your own water's report, and work that with RO/DI dilution.

Along the lines of "a little bit of knowledge is dangerous", when it comes to water chemistry, a little bit of knowledge (intent?) doesn't help.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Bottom line is that you don't know what's in your water and you don't know what's in this magical water. Therefore using one is just as good as the other. Seems to be easier/quicker to get your own water's report, and work that with RO/DI dilution.

Along the lines of "a little bit of knowledge is dangerous", when it comes to water chemistry, a little bit of knowledge (intent?) doesn't help.

Good post. Thank you all.