Help with starting point for water

[Indygunworks]

I am going be making the jump into all grain soon, but even if that takes a while the process has lead me to look into water quality. I have only done one batch at the new place and it was done with water that came through my softener.

I don't particularly care for the taste of the water that's not ran through the softener, as I have about 12ppm of iron which isn't super high but enough to taste it.

I would like some advice on a starting point for how to get water. I am 30 minutes from the closest grocery store, and an hour from the closest brew store so I would like to avoid RO water if I can. I have a few options but with water testing at 30 bucks a pop I don't want to dump a bunch of money into figure out which method to start with.

Use straight well water no filter.

Use straight well water through the already existing paper filter. I have a HUGE big blue sediment filter.

Purchase a charcoal filter for the big blue (probably expensive but should last a LOOONG time) and change filters our when I draw the water for brewing.

Use an inline RV charcoal filter on the well water

Use softened water

Use RO water from Kroger and amend


So those are the options.... where is my best starting point to draw a sample and send in to figure out what amendments I would need to make?

If I use the well water I think I should draw it 24 hours in advance and treat it with Camden tablets to make sure any bacteria from the well are killed.

 

[acidrain]

I would not use softened water.
I would run it through a charcoal filter instead.
I suggest getting a standard household filter canister and charcoal filter, draw water through it slowly for best effect. take a sample of that water and send it off to Ward Labs for an analysis.

 

[mabrungard]

There is no need to treat with Campden if you are on a well. The brewing process sterilizes the beer. You could start with terribly infected water and still come out making fine beer.

Don't use softened water, its full of sodium. Hard water is not the problem, high alkalinity is. Learn to use acid.

 

[CHansen6]

The old adage is brew with what tastes good. If possible, I'd suggest trying to get a sample post-filtration, pre-softening. Depending on the iron source, this may be enough to remove or reduce it below detectable levels. If not, a charcoal filter should hopefully do the trick. I personally use an inline RV filter, and have been very happy with it. There isn't any sort of dedicated water filtration or treatment in my place, just straight from the tap Lake Michigan derived city water. Also, they're cheap.

I agree that it'd be sort of futile to do a bunch of water testing. It'd probably be better to get some sort of treatment, filtration, etc. process figured out to make the water taste good, and then get a test done to get a better idea of mineral content and all that.

 

[doug293cz]

12 ppm iron is way too high for brewing. Getting iron out of brewing water is not simple. You might be better off just going with RO and building it up.

Brew on