Who uses tap water?

[kirbykollege]

Hey folks! I brewed my third batch the other day and said screw buying jugs of distilled and spring water to level out the carboy and just used my sink. Seems like its going good, but I just wanted a quick census on how many of you do this.

 

[Yooper]

Hey folks! I brewed my third batch the other day and said screw buying jugs of distilled and spring water to level out the carboy and just used my sink. Seems like its going good, but I just wanted a quick census on how many of you do this.

When I used extracts, I used my tap water all the time. For all-grain, though, my water is too alkaline and so I use reverse osmosis water for sparging and for a portion of my mashing also. I mix reverse osmosis water and tap water, depending on what I"m making. For a stout, I use 100% tap water.

The issue with tap water is that some water suppliers have added chloramine or chlorine to the water. Chlorine boils off, but chloramine does not and during fermentation it turns into some off-flavors, making the beer have a plastic-like flavor and aroma.

Some people have tap water that doesn't taste great, so then they should use purchased water.

 

[CCericola]

I use tap-water. Never had a flavour issue, but yeah, there's just some tap water that's not worth using.

 

[Horseflesh]

I use tap water and a quarter Campden tablet per 5 gallons. I have very soft and good tasting tap water here in Seattle. No problems so far but I am only drinking my second batch.

 

[Fatt]

I know people that go distilled and add salts and whatnots to make a water profile they desire. I know people who use reverse osmosis water, I know people who use tap water. It all depends on what your making, what your county water profile already looks like, and if you even care or not.

Me personally, I use arrowhead springwater cause it's just hard enough to be able to use for light brews and I can add gypsum to my mash to get my mash pH where I want it for dark brews. Sometimes, I'll even mix 1/2 and 1/2 of springwater/tapwater. Only problem with my tap water is it's got a bit of chlorine taste to it so I gotta be careful with it.

Get yourself a profile of your tapwater, which you can find on your water companies website and you can see what you're working with. Water is a bit out there for me chemistry wise, mostly because every choice in my life is to gain as much as I can from as little work as possible and water chemistry directly opposes that. In 'How to Brew' Palmer goes crazy in depth with water if you really wanna know the chemistry behind it.

 

[enkamania]

I use tap water and add a campden tablet

 

[jfr1111]

I use well water. Nothing in it, altough it is very hard. Serves me well since I tend to brew English beers. I wouldn't attempt a pilsner or a wheat with it. For those styles, I cut it with RO.

There's no "need" to use anything else but tap water, but your water needs to be of good quality, drinkable and free of chloramine and such. Getting a water analysis done, or even roughing it with an aquarium testing kit, can tell you a lot about your tap water so you can decide for yourself if it is worth it.

 

[gestyr]

I use my well water. It has temporary hardness and seems to work well for every style I have brewed. The jury is still out on the barleywine I brewed last year as I have yet to keg it. It did taste good when I put it in a carboy to age.

 

[teal]

Tap water here. Beers have been fine and others like them. I've been trying to learn more about water and how it works for all grain. Haven't gotten my mind around it yet.

My water report:

All are ppm

Ca: 35
CL: 15
Mg: 12
Na: 7
SO4: 24
pH: 7.2

Alkalinity
(as CaCO3) :100

Hardness
(as CaCO3): 140

Any advice on that report would be welcomed.

 

[stevedasleeve]

I'm a Scott so buying water is anathema... except my tap water tastes like ass. So I use a charcoal filter and ignore the "change filter now" indicator until it actually tastes like I need to do so. Works for me but YMMV and WTF etc.

Steve da sleeve(s)

 

[Bulls Beers]

My local water is soft and works perfectly for my beer style.

 

[zeg]

Pretty hard water here. Tastes good, though. I usually use tap water, run through a Brita filter, for darker beers, and store-bought spring water for lighter beers or mead (sometimes go half-and-half).

 

[TrubDog]

Well water and a charcoal filter. Makes fantastic brews.

 

[BrewChem]

I have softened well water... add some gypsum to the strike and dough in.. works like a charm..!

 

[Hackwood]

I've used an RO for all my drinking and cooking water for the past 15+ years and it was only natural that when I started brewing earlier this year that RO was the way to go. I'm going to be checking out PH and possible additions to the water in the future for different beers, but all but one of my beers has been good to great to everyone that has tried them. (the bad one had some old LME that I threw in just to get rid of it).

I have 1 unit mounted under my kitchen sink for drinking and cooking and icemaker and another hooked to a 40gal storage tank that I use for rinsing my vehicles after washing and now (after sanitizing) for homebrewing in the garage.

 

[VegasJ]

I use tap now but plan on doing a filter just for brewing

 

[C-Rider]

Here in upper Wai`anae Valley my water comes either from a deep city well in the upper valley or from a 100 yearl old tunnel dug by workers from the now defunkt Wai`anae Sugar Plantation. Either way the water is pumped up or dripping into the tunnel after being purified by hundreds if not thousands of feet of lava rock. So....I just use tap water to brew...Never had a complaint about my beer. Don't know if the water is hard or soft or somewhere inbetween. Rarely drink the stuff unless it's used to make beer of coffee. Water to me is something I wash with or use to make something to drink by mixing it w/something else. Straight water? Who drinks that???????????????????? LOL

 

[acidrain]

I use tap water...
I did a side-by-side taste test with my family. I live in Seattle, and our tap water is really good. I also happen to have a RO system for my other hobbies, and a charcoal filter for drinking water at my kitchen faucet. I have a really good artesian well near my house, so I gathered all four kinds of water and had my family taste them.
They were virtually indistinguishable.
Tap water is easiest, so that's what I go with.
If I move towards other styles, I may consider tweaking the chemistry.

 

[ILov2H8]

Don't over think it, I always use tap water, unless it comes out of the tap brown, will be ok. Trust me I have been doing this a long time.

 

[menerdari]

Tap water here, mine is hard, makes great beer.

 

[ILov2H8]

Natural hard water is good, the minerals in it help the yeast really do there work.

 

[BuddyBrews]

I use tap water...
I did a side-by-side taste test with my family. I live in Seattle, and our tap water is really good. I also happen to have a RO system for my other hobbies, and a charcoal filter for drinking water at my kitchen faucet. I have a really good artesian well near my house, so I gathered all four kinds of water and had my family taste them.
They were virtually indistinguishable.
Tap water is easiest, so that's what I go with.
If I move towards other styles, I may consider tweaking the chemistry.

HAHA It's all about the good clean well water!!

 

[BuddyBrews]

Well water and a charcoal filter. Makes fantastic brews.

Exactly.

 

[unionrdr]

Tap water here is generally good for all the ales I've brewed with extracts,even with steeping grains. I used distilled water for my 1st partial mash last week. We'll see how that comes out on turkey day. I've used spring water for some of my extract brews. I think it tastes a bit better,but not by much compared to the local tap water.

 

[kblankenship11]

Grab a local water report if you have city water, a quick Google search should give you what you need. If you have well water you can use testing tools to get the pH. I think generally if your well water tastes good it will be fine.

I use this tool to compare it to water from famous brewing areas. http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/ Mine is in between Pilsen and Munich. I use tap water for all my AG recipes and it works great.

 

[unionrdr]

Do you run it through a water filter or the like for AG/PM brewing?

 

[Farmer_Ted]

For those of you that use the Campden tablets. At what point during brewing do you add them?

Thanks!

 

[kblankenship11]

I dont filter my tap water when I brew AG. Having the water report is key because I know right where my water is at out of the tap. If i want to get close to a different areas water I'll add from there using that calculator above.

 

[sok454]

For my first brew this weekend I used distilled water. We have Chloramine in ours per our water report and I didn't have any tablets. Also our city just changed wells in the last year and since then our water has been inconsistent in terms of quality.

 

[Golddiggie]

I run mine through a filter setup. IF I'm not willing to drink the water as it comes out of the tap, I'm not going to brew, or cook, with it. I'd rather use the filter system, running the gallons through it, than have to toss brews due to off flavors caused by the water.

IMO the typical town water report doesn't mean much. It's typically run once a year, so you have no way of knowing what's in the water at this time. Unless you're going to send off a sample to a place that will give you the full report (it's been mentioned on HBT more than a few times) you won't know what's in the water. Even then, you'll probably need to do this at least once a year. IMO, better to just get a good filter system and run the water through that. The one I had installed under the kitchen sink, where I live now, has three filters, with the final one going down to .2 micron. I brewed for the first time with that water on 10/6 and plan on doing another batch at the end of this week, or over the weekend (depends on the starter and weather).

Personally, I don't have any issue spending a few extra minutes gathering my water to brew with. IMO, I'd rather do that than have something that I cannot drink.

 

[Horseflesh]

For those of you that use the Campden tablets. At what point during brewing do you add them?

Thanks!

I put in 1/4 tablet as soon as I put the pot on the burner.

 

[ReddHead]

I use charcoal filtered tap water and boil 2 gallons of it for topping up the wort. Seems to work just fine.

 

[AMonkey]

Not sure if it is the weather or my pipes or what, but for the last couple of weeks my water has tasted dirty. I didnt realize this a couple weeks ago and used a couple of gallons to brew with, and my beer has that same kind of dirty taste. Couldn't figure out what I had done wrong until I filled a glass with tap water and realized it was the same taste. Not sure if it is related but I will be using all bottled water for now. The next batch with just bottled water tasted good going into the fermenter.

 

[Golddiggie]

Not sure if it is the weather or my pipes or what, but for the last couple of weeks my water has tasted dirty. I didnt realize this a couple weeks ago and used a couple of gallons to brew with, and my beer has that same kind of dirty taste. Couldn't figure out what I had done wrong until I filled a glass with tap water and realized it was the same taste. Not sure if it is related but I will be using all bottled water for now. The next batch with just bottled water tasted good going into the fermenter.

Things like this is why I just use a filter system for all water that will be consumed (drinking, eating, brewing...). Cost break-down usually comes to a few cents (at most) per gallon for the first year. It then gets cheaper since you're only factoring the cost of replacement filters (not the housing and installation). Makes it far cheaper, per gallon, than buying water from the store.