My water tastes bad

[BSBrewer83]

I just moved a few months ago and I do not like the flavor of my tap water. There is a small off flavor that comes through in all my beers. Really annoying.

I am thinking of buying the water filter from Morebeer.com and use that going forward. It uses a carbon filter.

Should I then be adding back into the water or would this type of filter be sufficient?

 

[bbohanon]

Why not buy some spring water from the store and try a batch using it instead of the tap water?
I have personally not had much luck with filters with my water thus I dont brew with my tap water for the same reasons as you have..

 

[BSBrewer83]

So the filters didnt remove off flavors? Thats a good warning.

 

[Spartan1979]

You can buy a RO system, something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/PORTABLE-RE...240?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a3a1a2098

That will remove almost everything. Then you have to figure out what salts to add back.

 

[BSBrewer83]

You can buy a RO system, something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/PORTABLE-RE...240?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a3a1a2098

That will remove almost everything. Then you have to figure out what salts to add back.

Its a good option. I have looked into these. I have John Palmers water book. Looks like if I go this route I would be forced to really understand water... Not a bad thing to learn.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I read the thread title "My water tastes bad" and immediately thought, well you are not supposed to drink it. You are supposed to pee in a beer can and watch somebody else drink it.

 

[mabrungard]

It depends on what is making your tap water objectionable. If it is something that a carbon filter can actually remove, then go for it. If its not, you will need to go to greater extremes. The RO option mentioned above is likely to correct the taste problems.

 

[kickflip_mj]

It all depends on how bad your water really is. I first went with a 3 stage house filter, one sediment and two carbons, and that didnt work. Now I run the three stage filter into a 5 stage RO. If i did small batches I would just use bottled.

 

[bbohanon]

100% agreed on the RO system as the best home tap water "cleansing" filteration option. I plan on putting one in myself sometime down the line, but for now, I will settle for buying bottled water.
I just could not get my tap water to clean itself up for beer brewing with a carbon filter or any other filter off the shelf. I think I wasted almost $100 chasing this before I gave up and just started to buy bottled RO water from the grocery store/wal-mart. Looking back, I should have started by spending that $100 on a portable countertop RO system. However with the store water, the problem is for now solved and my beer thanks me.

 

[normonster]

I've been buying RO water as well but my tap water is good so I just ordered a carbon filter from Morebeer and am going to give that a shot. Picking up 5-5gal water bottles every time I brew is getting old. We'll see.

 

[BSBrewer83]

I do 10g batches so buying water each time would become much more expensive over time. I think I might try doing RO.

 

[GarageDweller]

Get a detailed water report from ward labs, or your local university's outreach program.