Water in Home Brewing

[Snags]

Hey again.

 

Just wondering as to what to believe from the MANY things I've heard about water.

 

The only water I have available to me is water from the creek running through our property. I've heard many things regarding what sort of water to use, and frankly I'm a bit confused as to what is right.

 

I've been filling my fermenter early in the morning from the hot tap (which is almost boiling in this house) to hopefully kill any microorganisms in it. Is this sufficient? Does the water need anything added to it to make it better, vitamins etc?

[Muddy Waters]

I'm not really talking from experience but I would tend to boil any water that is not from a treated source...but that is just me.

[Matty A]

I just use my water straight from the tap. 2 L of boiling and the rest is cold.

 

I think the idea is to reduce risk and since the water supply is treated alot of things are killed. If you are using creek water it might be best to boil it before using it.

[Snags]

Yeah that's what I thought. I'm assuming it's the chlorine in tap water that kills all the nasties?

[Matty A]

I would say so. Although if there is alot of chlorine it will put off flavours in your beer.

[IvanOtherOne]

Water quality, being about 90% or more of your beer is hugely important.

After using a double filtration system(5micron, and 0.5 micron,removes all the nasties) for the brewing water the resulting beer flavour was noticably nicer.

Townsville's water supply has a fair amount of clorine in it as well as most of the time, being a slightly brown colour.

Brewers, try half filling a clean white bucket with water and check the clarity. Some folk are shocked at what comes out of their taps.

Cheers, Ivan.

 

 

 

[Mike - Hoosier Daddy]

My first brew I used ground water from a well. It is filtered and softened but still high in iron. It has a distinct taste but Im used to it. It made a funny taste in that first brew so now I buy 23 litres of purified water from the store. Made a major difference for me.

[Snags]

So if I just boil the creek water, it should be fine? I've heard from a few people that some level of chlorine is needed in beer. Is this just another old wives tale?

 

And also, when people refer to hard and soft water, is that hard as in high in chlorine and soft as in low in chlorine? I don't fully understand those terms.

 

Cheers.

[Mike - Hoosier Daddy]

Snags, softening water just lowers the magnesium, calcium, and a few other minerals.

[Snags]

Ok Mike, thanks.

 

Sounds like I need to crack the old chemistry set out then[crying]

[Guest]

To completely sterilize water you need to boil it for at least 15 minutes.

 

Quoted on some website I found sometime ago... "In purification, sodium bisulfite is used as a mild reducing agent. It can get rid of residual chlorine, hypochlorite salts, bromine, osmate esters, chromium trioxide and potassium permanganate. Meanwhile, it also used as a decoloration agent to remove oxidizing agents."

 

 

[Pistnbroke]

From my personal experience, I would be inclined to boil the water to kill off any bacteria that may be present in the water. I have been camping for many years, and have picked up some nasty gastro bugs from drinking water from creeks that looked very clean and clear. It wouldnt hurt to pass it through a carbon filter either to remove any other impurities that the boiling can't get rid of that may cause off flavours in the brew.

[Stewie Rivers]

Gday Snags

I am on tank water up here and just use it straight from the tank through a 5 micron filter. 15 brews and no problems yet[cool]

[Snags]

Sweet, might look into getting a filter then.

[Trusty1]

And also, when people refer to hard and soft water, is that hard as in high in chlorine and soft as in low in chlorine? I don't fully understand those terms.

 

Cheers.

 

As MikeHD said soft and hard water is an indicator of the level of minerals in the water. Hard water is bad for hot water heaters. A test to tell if you have hard or soft water is simply how soap lathers. If it bubbles well, nice and thick, you have soft water, not so many bubbles, hard water. There should be minimal taste difference, but to use a brewing term, mouthfeel will differ.

[Snags]

Righto. . . soft water here then. I get a nice foam! [biggrin]

 

If I'm not mistaken, is soft water more suitable for brewing a Lager/Pilsner? Or is the difference hardly noticeable?

[Matty A]

If Trusty is correct by saying that it will give less mouthfeel, then it probably would be, as from my understanding Lagers have a thinner mouthfeel.

[ChristinaS1]

Hi Snags. I am just wondering if you can update us on your water situation? Are you boiling your creek water? Did you end up getting a filter?

 

We moved to the country and now have a well. We have only ever had the water tested once, when we bought the house, and although it is hard, it tastes good, and the bacterial count was fine at the time of testing. I know that in the summer, during dry spells, the water level in the well can get quite low and the pump can suck up sand, and in the spring, during snow melt, the water level can get quite high. Since moving to this house I have had a spike in contaminated batches. I have tried tightening up my sanitation practices but that has not solved the problem, so now I am wondering about the water. We do not have an in-house water treatment system, except for a (50 micron) sediment filter, which captures a fair bit of sand; I suspect that smaller particles of sediment still get through, and I wonder if there is still a bit of sand in the pipes from before we put the sediment filter in? All I know is that if I fill a bucket of water I occasionally see the odd floatie in it. I am thinking about hauling reverse osmosis water from the city for brewing purposes, as I go into town at least once a week anyway. RO water is a lot cheaper than some of the in-house water treatment systems. Note: our water does not appear to be making us sick.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Hi Christina,

 

I don't think Snags has been active on here for quite a few years now so you may not get a reply there..

 

Anyway, boiling the water would definitely help. This is one advantage of all grain - the whole volume of wort gets boiled for an hour or more. It may be a bit of a pain to boil all the water for kit/extract batches prior to mixing it all up, unless you had a couple of large enough containers to store it in. Another option could be to get a still, and distill the water. This removes almost all impurities. It may or may not be cheaper where you are to do that than buying water. Here, it certainly is. Not doing all grain, you probably wouldn't have to worry too much about adding minerals back into it.

 

I distill my brewing water for pilsners, but only because this is the easiest way to soften the water for this style. I then add the minerals back in on brew day. Other styles I just use the tap water as it doesn't need softening - it probably needs to be harder really. I don't buy into the scaremongering of some parties about the supposed "hidden dangers" or whatever they crap on about. Brisbane tap water is perfectly fine. All batches I've done have had no problems, not due to the water anyway. In other areas, it isn't as good but I still think it would be cheaper to distill one's own water and re-add minerals if needed, than waste money on bottled stuff, which, if you believe the claims of the makers, would actually contain more bugs than tap water.

 

You probably won't find these impurities in your water will make you sick but they could well have an impact on the beer. The flavour may be off, or as you have noted yourself, batches may become contaminated due to things in the water itself. I guess you have those three options - buy the RO water, boil enough for a batch a few days before brewing and store it in appropriate containers, or get a still and distill it yourself.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[ChristinaS1]

Thanks Kelsey. As always, you are so helpful.

 

RO is not very expensive here, C$2 for 19 liters. I can boil the remainder. In any event I will have to transfer the water into smaller containers beforehand and put them in the fridge to chill, and that will be a bit of a hassle. But it will be worth it not to have contaminated batches. Sigh.

[Otto Von Blotto]

That's not too bad. I'm not sure what RO water goes for here (reading more, it looks about $5 per 20 litres) as I never buy water (except to use the bottles for water bottles at work), but bottled "spring" water if bought in bulk is about $1 a litre last I looked. It's more expensive in smaller 600mL bottles - they go for about $3 each. There's no way in hell I'm going to waste $35 buying water to brew with every time I do a brew day. Or even $10 for the RO water, but, as I have said, my tap water has no problems, so there is no need anyway.

 

I got a distiller for $90 off eBay and have done about 70 litres with it so far. It does about 3-4 litres at a time. I just boil the water on the stove before putting it in the still, so it doesn't take as long or use as much electricity as it doesn't have to heat it up to boiling point. I plan on doing an experiment on my pilsner recipe of doing the next batch with distilled water + minerals, but the one after with straight untreated tap water. I'm guessing the modified water will turn out a slightly better beer, but will see in time. Bias on my part knowing the difference between the two beers will most likely have an effect on how I perceive them as well. Might have to get some blind taste testers in!

[ChristinaS1]

I have been doing some more reading about brewing with extract and what water you use. As PB2 mentioned in the yeast sticky, Coopers uses RO water and adds minerals for the style, so the extract contains all the minerals needed. If you use tap water or well water, you are getting a double water profile: the extract + your water source. If your water is not high in any particular mineral, you are probably fine, but if you are high in anything (particularly sodium, sulphate, or alkalinity), it could result in harsh bitterness. Although I initially decided to use RO water out of concerns our well water may be causing contaminated batches, this is another reason to make the switch; our water is quite alkaline.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yep, it will be different for everyone. Our tap water here is rather soft by comparison to some parts of the world. I can't say I noticed a harsh bitterness when boiling hops in it with some extract when I was doing extract batches. Definitely no harsh bitterness in any of my AG batches. I'm not sure the water would affect the bitterness when simply mixing up a kit though as there is no boiling of hops involved. From what I understand, different mineral contents affecting bitterness perception is a boil related thing.

[livebynight]

I recently got a RO system for the home. Just did my first batch using it so pretty hopeful it should be pretty clean tasting.

 

BTW Otto i got a rough guide from the water filter company that the minerals re-added to the water is mostly calcium and magnesium and as a rough figure he said about 15 ppm TDS for a pH level around about 6.

[Otto Von Blotto]

BTW Otto i got a rough guide from the water filter company that the minerals re-added to the water is mostly calcium and magnesium and as a rough figure he said about 15 ppm TDS for a pH level around about 6.

 

That's a start, I suppose. For kit beers it doesn't really matter anyway but doing AG it certainly will have an effect. Those are only 2 of the 6 minerals brewers are concerned with, however. The others are Sodium, Chloride, Sulfate and Bicarbonate. Not knowing what the levels of these are makes things more difficult, hence my previous suggestion of ditching the re-mineraliser for brewing water, buying the salts and re-adding the minerals yourself. At least this way you know what's in it.