Just wondering how many people just use plain old tap water to fill up the fermenter. How many people use bottled or springt water / cooled boiled water etc.....
For my first 3 brews I have used a 15 litre neverfail bottle and topped the rest up with tap water.
Not sure if it is worth the trouble. Was thinking of just using tap water next time.
Just wondering what everyonmes thoughts were.
Thanks
Tap Water
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Trough Lolly
- Posts: 1647
- Joined: Friday Feb 16, 2007 3:36 pm
- Location: Southern Canberra
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Have seen plenty of research done on water quality comparing capital cities, filtered water (brita, puratap etc) as well as many brands of spring water.
In reality, the difference is not all that much and for all the time, effort and money spent its not an issue - i am referring here to K&K, extract brewrs, the mashers have different issues to deal with.
Water quality has significantly improved over the past 10 years such that Adelaide tap water isnt actually the chlorinated disgrace it once was. I use tap water and i stand by that, if i had rainwater i would use that but i am not going to spend money on additional aspects of my brewing when fermentation temperature isnt under control.....
altho i have seen people use a brita filter and a bucket for little cost.........
In reality, the difference is not all that much and for all the time, effort and money spent its not an issue - i am referring here to K&K, extract brewrs, the mashers have different issues to deal with.
Water quality has significantly improved over the past 10 years such that Adelaide tap water isnt actually the chlorinated disgrace it once was. I use tap water and i stand by that, if i had rainwater i would use that but i am not going to spend money on additional aspects of my brewing when fermentation temperature isnt under control.....
altho i have seen people use a brita filter and a bucket for little cost.........
Tap water, boiled and cooled.
Bring the water JUST to boil, this pasteurises it. It must be above 80celsius for pasteurising. Then after about 24hours to cool, into the fridge it goes for a couple of days.
Then I can boil up a good amount of water with the kit & malt etc, tip in chilled water, and pitch straight away at about 20-25celsius.
Bring the water JUST to boil, this pasteurises it. It must be above 80celsius for pasteurising. Then after about 24hours to cool, into the fridge it goes for a couple of days.
Then I can boil up a good amount of water with the kit & malt etc, tip in chilled water, and pitch straight away at about 20-25celsius.
"Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer." - Dave Barry.
Reverse osmosis water, which is the same as distilled water is essentially mineral free and as such, is not designed for human consumption..... car batteries yes, humans no. Good for analytical research, back for the digestive system.Trough Lolly wrote:All beers I make are made with tap water - that's passed through a reverse osmosis filter tap on the kitchen sink.
Cheers,
TL
Brita filters, purataps and the like are fine but not RO.
But i would assume that the 'RO' tap you have in your kitchen is a marketing gimmick rather than an actual RO filter.
Article discussing why RO water is bad for you
http://www.mercola.com/article/water/di ... _water.htm
Article on bottled vs tap water
http://www.choiceextra.com.au/images/pd ... 0Water.pdf
http://www.mercola.com/article/water/di ... _water.htm
Article on bottled vs tap water
http://www.choiceextra.com.au/images/pd ... 0Water.pdf
I use plain old Pine Rivers Shire (Queensland) tap water, which so far has been fine. The only problem I've observed thus far in my limited brewing experience is the temperature -- after around a litre of boiling water added to the mix and sugar, the end resultant temperature sits around 28c, which is above the recommended temp. However, the results to date have been fine. Being a dedicated VB consumer however, I have reservations that my palette is sufficiently developed to detect the affect higher temperatures have on a brew 
.
My dad is an old-hat at brewing, and he has never used anything but regular tap water -- his results speak for themselves. Always a pleasure to visit and enjoy a tall'ey or two
.My dad is an old-hat at brewing, and he has never used anything but regular tap water -- his results speak for themselves. Always a pleasure to visit and enjoy a tall'ey or two
Tap water.
I recently went on the coopers tour and found that they are getting their water from under the ground and then using reverse osmosis to get rid of impurities.They later add back some mineral salts so the yeast can metabolise properly.If it was bad for public health i doubt the blokes at coopers would brew their beers with it.
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SpillsMostOfIt
- Posts: 789
- Joined: Friday Nov 24, 2006 5:07 pm
- Location: Collingwood, Australia
I make somewhat less beer than Coopers (or even Boags for that matter).
I tried filtering my (Melbourne) tap water for a few K&K brews and bought some spring water for a batch. Now I use tap water for my brews (K&K, extract and AG).
My (frankly inexperienced) opinion is that there are more important things to worry about - process, temperature control, recipe, hippopotamus attack, etc... Someone said somewhere that if you are happy drinking it, you should be happy brewing with it. If you are doing anything other than K&K, you might want to look at pH, but even that is a lot more effort than this particular slack-4rse now wishes to bother with.
I tried filtering my (Melbourne) tap water for a few K&K brews and bought some spring water for a batch. Now I use tap water for my brews (K&K, extract and AG).
My (frankly inexperienced) opinion is that there are more important things to worry about - process, temperature control, recipe, hippopotamus attack, etc... Someone said somewhere that if you are happy drinking it, you should be happy brewing with it. If you are doing anything other than K&K, you might want to look at pH, but even that is a lot more effort than this particular slack-4rse now wishes to bother with.
No Mash Tun. No Chill.
No confirmed fatalities.
No confirmed fatalities.
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SpillsMostOfIt
- Posts: 789
- Joined: Friday Nov 24, 2006 5:07 pm
- Location: Collingwood, Australia
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SpillsMostOfIt
- Posts: 789
- Joined: Friday Nov 24, 2006 5:07 pm
- Location: Collingwood, Australia
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Trough Lolly
- Posts: 1647
- Joined: Friday Feb 16, 2007 3:36 pm
- Location: Southern Canberra
- Contact:
I stand corrected, it's a Brita Filter thingy - not RO...drsmurto wrote:Reverse osmosis water, which is the same as distilled water is essentially mineral free and as such, is not designed for human consumption..... car batteries yes, humans no. Good for analytical research, back for the digestive system.Trough Lolly wrote:All beers I make are made with tap water - that's passed through a reverse osmosis filter tap on the kitchen sink.
Cheers,
TL
Brita filters, purataps and the like are fine but not RO.
But i would assume that the 'RO' tap you have in your kitchen is a marketing gimmick rather than an actual RO filter.
Cheers,
TL (who isn't a scientist!)
Will leave my nerdy scientist garble for other forums in the future TL...Trough Lolly wrote:I stand corrected, it's a Brita Filter thingy - not RO...drsmurto wrote:Reverse osmosis water, which is the same as distilled water is essentially mineral free and as such, is not designed for human consumption..... car batteries yes, humans no. Good for analytical research, back for the digestive system.Trough Lolly wrote:All beers I make are made with tap water - that's passed through a reverse osmosis filter tap on the kitchen sink.
Cheers,
TL
Brita filters, purataps and the like are fine but not RO.
But i would assume that the 'RO' tap you have in your kitchen is a marketing gimmick rather than an actual RO filter.
Cheers,
TL (who isn't a scientist!)
Brita is ok, it mainly filters out floaty bits and large bacteria. If i wasnt renting i woudl install some sort of water purification system like puratap.mark_68 - the point is that coopers ADD back the mineral salts that the RO rips out so that makes it ok. The RO system was a health fad a while back and is used by nerdy scientists like me to ensure the water i use in experiments is ridiculously high purity.
Wow, that was extra nerdy - time to get back to my flasks of bubbling goo and dark labs with hunchbacked assistants....