Water question

[crawkraut]

I'm about 12 batches in and have used bottled spring water for every batch. Even got 2nd place in a pro-am for my 4th batch an ipa!

I'm on city water and am tired of buying bottled water.

Is it safe to use my city/tap water??

I know it's treated but what have your results been?

 

[billl]

I use filtered city water - but my city water is naturally pretty soft and low in all the key minerals. Your results may vary.

You should be able to get a water report and see what you are working with.

 

[mabrungard]

A lot of brewers do use tap water. But without knowing what is in your tap water, its difficult to determine if its well suited for brewing. Finding out what is in the water is the first step!

With that said, recognize that there are very few water sources that won't need some treatment in order to make the water more suited for a particular brew. Just a couple of simple steps can make a huge difference, but you have to figure out what those changes are.

Good tasting water can still make bad beer.

 

[mjohnson]

Just to add to what mabrungard's comment, be aware that city water also can change over the year. Where I live, they nuke the system with chlorine every March. If you call your local water provider, I bet they'd be more than happy to talk a bit about that sort of thing.

One easy first step is also to use campden tablets in your water. It will break down chlorine/chloramines. You need 1 tablet for 20 gallons. No need to over-do it.

 

[crawkraut]

What if I just ran the city water through a water filter? Canister style water filter with micron level (XX.x?) filtration...?


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[mabrungard]

What if I just ran the city water through a water filter? Canister style water filter with micron level (XX.x?) filtration...?

The only filter that does anything for brewing water is an activated carbon filter. If you run the water through one of those at a slow enough rate, it can remove chlorine and chloramine. For the typical 10-inch undersink filter canisters, the flow rate has to be less than 1 gal/min in order to remove chlorine. The rate has to be reduced to less than 0.1 gal/min in order to remove chloramine. Campden tablets are a quicker option for removing those contaminants.

With this said, you still don't have any information on the tap water. You might be able to brew some styles without treating your water, but you won't be able to brew all styles. You really do have to learn to treat your water to make great beer in all styles.

 

[crawkraut]

Gracias, I do have the annual water report now will have to grab the right additives...


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[hoplobster]

For what it's worth, I use tap water and just treat with a small piece of a crushed campden tablet, and my beers have been fine.

Most pro brewers that I've talked to in the area use the same water, untreated. Detroit municipal water is quite good, which is no surprise, given the source.

 

[Tutsbrew]

Our tap water varies season to flipp'n season so I build my water up from distilled. I get a bit of a price break from the walmart shelf price due to a water distiller/distributor in town here. I had to read a thousand damned pages of material and put together bits and pieces in finding how to do that as most information is geared toward diluting tap water, say for reducing carbonates, but not much is available for building water up from distilled regarding alkalinity, residual alkalinity, etc. Not everyone brews over the top IPA's hiding behind extreme bitterness don't ya know...

FWIW, I wonder how many peeps out there are lucky enough to have the same damned water profile season to season, NOT counting the well water types...

 

[crawkraut]

Lol! I hear ya - probably no one has same h2o profile YoY...unless ur on well water and even then Mother Nature must cause variations of some sort. What's ur typical build up like in terms of additives and amounts per measure


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[Tutsbrew]

Crawkraut, here's a link to the recipe I'm tinkering with now that I will brew this fall. The water additions are down in the "Target water profile..." area. I'm still learning so there may likely something I'll need to change. Or not!

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/139856/tinkering-recipe-for-fall-2014