Water for extract brewing

Hi guys!
I am going to brew an Irish red ale kit with DME and specialty grains. I have read that DME has all the essential minerals in it. So my question is...do I use regular tap water, distilled water or spring water? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers

Spring water would be my choice.

u can use any as long as it tastes good.

You can use any water that tastes good so long as it doesn't have chlorine in it. If you use tap water you will need to either charcoal filter it or treat it with metabisulphite or campden tablets.

As long as you like the taste of your water you can just use your tap water.

For straight extract brewing, I use distilled water. If I'm steeping grains or doing a partial mash, I use bottled drinking water for the steep/mash and distilled for the rest. I should note that my tap water tastes like ass.

I've used tap water for all of my batches and think they've turned out great. Did nothing to get rid of chlorine.

Distilled water works well. But I've settled on local spring water from the source that's 10c per gallon. The yeasties seem to love it,& it gives cleaner hop & malt flavors. Works well with all my beers from AE to PM.

Thanks guys! I already have the same kit fermenting and used tap water on that one. I will try bottled water on this one and see how it goes.
Cheers!

i use spring water for all of my extract brews. 5 gal is only about $5 at my grocery store so it's not too bad.

Try looking in the phone book for local spring water sources. Way cheaper & def worth the effort. Or maybe a search on google,ask,etc.

I don't know where you live, but in Southern CA there are water machines outside of every grocery store. .25 a gallon isn't too bad of a price to pay. Of course, there are also water stores in almost every shopping center in my area. I actually get my water from the water stores now because I can wash my jugs and then fill them at the store.

I am in a unique area, though. Inland Southern CA has a huge latino population. Even though our water is 100% safe for drinking, the latinos don't trust water from the tap because water in Mexico (and other latin american countries) is unsafe. Everyone buys bottled water back home, so it just sort of transfered here.

I will say that the tap water in our area isn't the best tasting. There are times that you can smell the chlorine when you turn on the tap. It is also harder than what I am used to. I figure that $2.50 for 10 gallons of water every few weeks isn't a terrible deal.

Thanks for the replies guys! I will be using spring water that can get at Water Depot. Can't remember the price, but it is cheap. I also got a water analysis report from where it is bottled. The only thing missing from report was the Alkalinity. Once I have that then I will be able to dial it in to Brewsmith and use for AG when I have the rest of my equipment.
Thanks again!
Cheers!