Flavor of water

[prushik]

I have heard that the water that you use in your beer is very influential in the flavor of the final product. I have been told to use distilled water, not to use distilled water, spring water, never use spring water, use tap water, filter it through activated carbon, etc... All different things from all different people. I have only used filtered tap water in my beer, but does anyone have any insight/experience with different water? How does it affect your beer? How noticeable is it? Any recommendations?

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Filtered tap water is fine for beginning, and is IMO a must for AG brewing at the beginning.

I use RO water and build it according to the style I ma making, sometimes I can't make the additons to be exact to the region I am trying to duplicate but htat is neither here nor there, it is close to say the least.

Building your water gives you another region of control over your brewing, and allows you to duplicate a style closer to a classic/well known beer style.

However, I think that brewing with your local water (at least brewing a style suite to your local water, can give your beer that "Je ne sais quoi" that other places may not be able to).

Anyhow using strait distilled or RO water is a no-no, spring water, and filtered water are better alternatives.

You can always contact your local water department and get a copy of your water report, and find out exactly what exaclty is in your water.

For more detail on water check out the Kaiser's Wiki . This dude does tons of experiments, and really knows his stuff about many things brew related. From water to pH, to mash, to efficiency this guy has a little something on everything, and it is very comprehensive, check it out, read, read, read some more, learn, and improve!

Cheers!

 

[mabrungard]

Knowing what is in your water and how to work with it is a component of brewing great beer. But, you can get by just doing the minimum with your tap water as long as that tap water tastes good to you. The minimum is to make sure that chlorine or chloramine are removed from your brewing water.

Worrying about water chemistry is one of the last things a brewer should concern themselves with since there are many other processes and inputs that affect beer quality more. I agree that checking out Kai's wiki mentioned above is helpful as is AJ's Primer on water in this forum. Another tool and knowledge source is Bru'n Water.

Enjoy.

 

[remilard]

If you are brewing extract, just start with RO, the minerals in the water the extract was made with are still there. If you want to add a little gypsum as a flavor thing on a hoppy English or American beer, fine.

Distilled would be fine too but it is usually a bit more expensive than RO, and RO is generally close enough to ion free. RO is easily attainable from machines in supermarkets for about .39 cents a gallon around where I live. You have to invest in a 5 gallon bottle or three up front, but over time you will be better off making that investment and buying water at .39 cents a gallon vs buying it in the gallon jugs for 59 cents or 69 cents and having a recycling bin full of gallon jugs every weekend.

 

[Bithead]

If your beer tastes good don't worry about it. If you have a chloramine problem use some campden. If you have very soft water it will benefit hoppier styles and if your water is hard it will benefit darker maltier styles. If you have high iron then buy some spring water. Spring has minerals in it that distilled and RO water don't have. You need the minerals in the brew water.

I have very soft water and have for the past couple months adjusting my water so that my Chloride to Sulfate ratios are more for a balanced (malty vs bitter) style while keeping pH around 5.3. I'm not a fanatic about this but my APAs have less sharp bitter bite.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Knowing what is in your water and how to work with it is a component of brewing great beer. But, you can get by just doing the minimum with your tap water as long as that tap water tastes good to you. The minimum is to make sure that chlorine or chloramine are removed from your brewing water.

Worrying about water chemistry is one of the last things a brewer should concern themselves with since there are many other processes and inputs that affect beer quality more. I agree that checking out Kai's wiki mentioned above is helpful as is AJ's Primer on water in this forum. Another tool and knowledge source is Bru'n Water.

Enjoy.

My bad, I completely forgot about the chlorine/chloramine, use campden tablets, and let it off gas over night, works beautifully!