Jump to content
Coopers Community

Water


RoyG

Recommended Posts

Hi all. Just wondering what water people use. I get mine from a certain brewery in Adelaide[sick] that has a charity fountain out the front. Wondered if anyone uses Adelaide tap water? Dont know if you get any chlorine after taste in the beer or not. Have had some bad experiences with tap water[crying]. Let us know. Roy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 84
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Might give the old tap water a go then. Hopefully it has improved over time. We have a pura tap but am not allowed to use it after filling an 11 litre bottle on the ground with 20 litres. She not happy about that.[lol]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use water straight from the tap when brewing - mashing, sparging boiling.

 

The water I add to a brew (can kit or a cube of brewed wort) into the FV comes from the pura-tap.

 

Make sure the water does not carry chlorine odour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

some women can be water nazies! I cant have a shower longer then 10mins with out getting yelled at! [crying]

 

I find my tap water has a taste to it that i am not very fond of, But out pura Tap seems to remove that taste! So i use the pura tap for all drinking and brewing needs! [biggrin]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Riga's original tap water here - I'm lucky, I live in part of city where water gets treated by ozone, so its plenty oxygenated off the tap and no noticeable chlorine in there. It's rather hard tho, so when I go for heavy beers, I use bottled water, which is technically very close to reverse osmosis filtered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
I use Sydney tap water for all my brews and can't fault it.

 

I even drink the stuff straight [biggrin]

Nothing like an old thread [lol] [lol] Q1 so do you Brewmasters still use tapwater.Q2do you check for any nasties.Q3do you boil water first.Q4 If not why not.[alien] [alien]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q1 - Yes, I use Sydney tap water.

 

Q2 - I don't check for any nasties.

 

Q3 - I don't boil. I top up the FV with water straight from the tap.

 

Q4 - I have never had a problem with it. Why create extra work for no reason. I leave that to my employer [innocent]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i use my rainwater tank, dont have any choice as i am in the bush. its always a dirty colour because its normally full of every species of bat, bird and frog s**t, especially now as the level is so low. none of us has ever got sick from it and neither has my beer. alcohol kills all bad bugs. as Rod Marsh once said when he was touring india with the aussie cricket team in the 70's. the only way to avoid getting sick was to "drink beer and eat beer"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use tap water, RO water and or a combo of the both. I have been experimenting with beer's 4th ingredient for a while.

 

My tap water is very good to drink but it is very hard and high in temporary hardness. RO water is a good choice as it is a "blank slate" in which to work from. It is completely devoid of minerals which it not so great fron yeast nutrition. I think a combo is the best bet. Using my hard tap water for the mineral content and the RO as the softner. I have also in the case of my Marzen/Oktoberfest I boiled the tap water the night before for ten minutes to remove the Temorary Hardness as the style demands.

 

I am glad this topic has come up. It's avery important point that is often ignored. I think it is taken for granted just because it comes out of the tap. It should be as important in your recipe as hops, malt, and yeast especially when trying to brew to a certain style.

 

BTW "Water" is for washing your tools on the brewery and "Liquor" is what beer is made from.[rightful] [wink]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always use tapwater and never had any problems.

 

some of the cities in Europe used to brew beer so they COULD drink the water without getting crook????

1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak London

There was one significant anomaly - none of the monks in the adjacent monastery contracted cholera. Investigation showed that this was not an anomaly, but further evidence, for they drank only beer, which they brewed themselves.

 

same outbreak

Among the 70 workers in a Broad Street brewery, where the men were given an allowance of free beer every day and so never drank water at all, there were no fatalities at all

 

But of course, they would have boiled all the water put into the beer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Hairy,

 

I believe that my TDS (total dissolved solids) are a wapping 300+ppm[w00t][w00t]. It's been a year or more since i got my town's water profile. The last time I had a copy it seem to be rich in all/most important brewing minerals. This is not always a good thing.

 

I think that a forum wide study should be done(for those who are into it[roll] )on there own "liquor" and what they can do to improve it for better beer. This is as important as the other 3 ingredients.

 

Just because it's wet doesn't mean it makes good beer![wink]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i use my rainwater tank' date=' dont have any choice as i am in the bush. its always a dirty colour because its normally full of every species of bat, bird and frog s**t, especially now as the level is so low. none of us has ever got sick from it and neither has my beer. alcohol kills all bad bugs. as Rod Marsh once said when he was touring india with the aussie cricket team in the 70's. the only way to avoid getting sick was to "drink beer and eat beer"[/quote']

 

With regards to the quality of my available water, what could i posibly add to help clean it up? in all honesty, it hasnt caused a problem for my family or my beer, but i wouldnt want to risk losing even one batch. the tank is very low at the moment and the water is discoloured, but when its full of fresh rainwater it is the softest and sweetest you could drink.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know anything about changing the profile of water as I have never had to myself and it's a whole new world of research I really do not need. However, I do believe there are products/chemicals available to do so. Maybe a little bit of Googling and I am sure you'd find something.

 

Some members at AHB change their water profiles pretty regularly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...