Water question

[ryoko]

Hi all,

Lots of chat about sanitizing and preventing bad things from getting into the brew, so I had a question about the water. I'm new so only doing extract brewing at this time. I boiled 2.5 gallons of water + extract + hopes. After chilling I added it to the primary and then topped it with water off to make 5 gallons total. I made it through primary, and it is now in secondary with no issues (not saying I did not make mistakes, but no infection at least).

Anyway I was thinking about that topping off with water. What should I have used? In my case I used filtered tap water. Should I have used unfiltered, bottled spring, distilled, or even boiled water. Then again does it matter, am I reading too much into it.

Thanks all

 

[TipsyDragon]

I used to top off with gallons of bottled spring water. Never had an issue with contamination.

And yes I think your reading to much into it. Normal new brewer jitters. Happens to us all.

 

[Easterbrook]

For extract, as long as the water tastes and smells good, it's fine to use. Someone may bring up the chance of infection, but in all the extract batches I did topping off with tap water, I never had an infection.

I think you're fine.

 

[WaltG]

I use a brita filter. I know here you can get filtered water from a machine for like $1.75 for 5 gallons. Couple bucks to make sure you have good water is worth it.

 

[ryoko]

Thanks everyone

 

[hbtasdfg]

it makes little difference but ideally tap water should be boiled then cooled to room temp to drive off any remaining chlorine