Letting Water Sit

I'm about to move into an apartment, and I'm playing with different ideas for reusing water so I'm not dumping a lot of water off my balcony where I'll be brewing.

One thing I'm thinking of is getting some type of plastic barrel and running my IC water into it, then using that water for the mash/sparge/boil next time I brew.

My question is, is there any problem with letting water sit in a food grade container outdoors for several weeks? I typically brew about 3 times a month, give or take.

I understand I'll lose some to evaporation, and this will alter the chemical composition a bit, but will it affect it very much if it's a closed container?

you could reuse the water but you would want to boil any used in your beer. there could be nasties in it after sitting that long.

Not a big worry since it will all go through a full boil.

If you are going to store it and are worried about algae and stuff put chlorine (unscented chlorox) in at the recommended rate for water storage. Keep it covered and it will be fine for a good deal of time.

Heating the water to mash temperatures ( 150+ ) should drive off the chlorine in about ten minutes or so.

Just check your storage barrel to see nothing grows in it when it is not being used..

bosco

Personally, I wouldn't do it. And you certainly don't want chlorine in your brew water.

How about getting a second barrel and using a pond pump on your IC. Move the same water from one barrel to the other while chilling every time you brew.

Bosco: That sounds like something pretty easy to do. I agree, since it's boiling and mashing, I'm not too worried about anything surviving. I just don't want the water chemistry to get all ****ed because it sits. I'll look into chlorine concentrations for storing water.

Seems like it may be about that time in my brewing career that I start getting into water chemistry...