Your thoughts on Brewing with well water

[brewfarmDan]

I moved to a home with well water 15 years ago. The homebrew books I had at the time didn't like well water and I never tried but have decided to start brewing again. I am in the Northern California Sierra Foothills were we have hard water with a lot of Iron and I am also told some type of iron bacteria. We have a water softening system and good filtration. Our treated water tastes good but untreated does not and leaves iron stains. I am planning to take a water sample in today for water analysis. The local brew store suggested buying reverse osmosis city water at the store which is said to be good brewing water at $0.35 per gallon.

1) My first concern is water quality for whole grain brewing?
2) My other concern is sterilization. My plan was a bucket of strong chlorinated water with soap for cleaning, rinse with well tap water, and then rinse or wipe with lightly chlorinated well water?

Thanks for the site and any comments. Dan

 

[Darwin18]

Concern #1)

- Basic Answer: If the treated water out of your tap tastes good then it's probably okay to brew with.

- Better Answer: Send a sample into Ward labs and get it tested. You can make adjustments based on the results of the test using software like Bru'n (sp?) Water.

Concern #2)

- I'd go with a non-rinse sanitizer like StarSan. If you're just cleaning equipment then soap and treated water would probably be best. I would really avoid chlorine if at all possible.

 

[brewfarmDan]

Thanks Darwin. I had a water sample test done yesterday at the local water treatment store and need to add to the neutralizer tank then retest for PH, they said all other levels were good. They told me to run a while after adjustment before sampling I should have a new test report in a week and will post the numbers.

 

[uncleleon]

If you can use your well water, it would be the first choice for many reasons. A lot of iron could be a concern tho.

 

[brewfarmDan]

Leon, the test report I got was verbal but from memory they said the "Iron, calcite and hardness were ok". The PH was 6.2 so I need to add to the neutralizer. I will do today and in a week I will take a new sample and get a written report. I hope the well works because I don't want to haul 5 gallon water bottles and would still have sterilization issues with my rinse water

 

[uncleleon]

6.2ph! That's sounds like some awesome brewing water. You my be able to preboil and decant and get that down even lower.

Put you full water report up here and the water wizards will hook you up with some knowledge. Cheers!

 

[Xpertskir]

they said all other levels were good.

Good for what, drinking?

Just because it's good to drink doesn't mean it's good for brewing. Typically people who brew with well water are using pre softened water. I believe that most softners basically exchange CA and Mg for NA..not necessarily a good trade for brewing water.

If I were you I would send a sample to ward labs of both the pre and post softened water to ward labs and see what it looks like.

You cannot use straight RO water for brewing all grain beers, if the guys(gals) at your LHBS told you that you could I would never ask their advice again. RO water is acceptable for extract.

Water is a critical part of brewing but if you are just getting back into it I would use spring water from a grocery store for a while before you spend any time on water, there will be plenty of other aspects of brewing that you will need to focus on.

Spring water will rarely be great brewing water, but it will almost always be good, and rarely bad.

 

[brewfarmDan]

Xp .... by Good I am sure they mean for drinking, this was the local water treatment store. I was going to get my adjustments done and then get a test for brewing. It would be nice to use my home tap for brewing. But it has been 15 years since my last batch so hauling may be the best option for my 1st run. Thank you for the post

 

[sudbuddy]

2) My other concern is sterilization. My plan was a bucket of strong chlorinated water with soap for cleaning, rinse with well tap water, and then rinse or wipe with lightly chlorinated well water?

Whoa! Pump the brakes! 15 years ago that was probably the way to go, but now we have Star San, which is a no-rinse, acid based sanitizer. That will take care of all your critter issues and you don't need to rinse it at all. Don't fear the foam, it won't hurt your beer. I would say that is a way more important thing to address for your welcome-back batch than your brewing water. Get some star san and leave the chlorine in the pool. Good luck on your brew, and welcome back!

 

[revco]

I've heard all sorts of things about well water and whether it's good or not. For the last 6 years, I've been using well water (softened and unsoftened, filtered and unfiltered) in both extract and all grain and have made some dang fine brews. Lagers, ales of all different kinds and they all come out drinkable, some just downright awesome. I'm firmly in the, "If it tastes good enough to drink, it'll prolly make decent beer" camp.

I certainly admire perfection of the craft and wouldn't discourage anyone from trying to go there. But, I also think the water debate is somewhat open to actual experience and you won't know until you try. That's not to say some things can't negatively affect your outcomes, of course, but a real experience is more qualified to tell you what will work than a fancy water report.

You can always try using ratios of RO water with your well water, I've done that on a few really light lagers and appreciated the difference, but it wasn't what made it drinkable in my opinion.

Oh, and the boil will kill pretty much anything alive. Starsan for anything that isn't boiled.