Water Differences

[Muss]

I have been brewing now for about four years and am reasonably happy with my product (it tastes good and I get fairly wobbly from it), I have recently installed a rainwater tank for drinking water purposes and was wondering if rainwater is any better or worse than town water for brewing. I have asked a few mates who brew and have varying answer. Maybe someone in out there in brewland has more experience.

[The Brew Master]

Hi Muss

 

 

 

I would be careful with water from a tank. Have you noticed that when a bird sits on your spouting it always has it's tail in the spout. I use good old town water and never had a bad brew yet.

 

 

 

Regards Peter.

[Muss]

Thanks Peter

 

I think I will stick to town water as nobody should drink crappy brew

 

 

 

Muss

[Hashie]

Stick with town water, unless you live in QLD, then you really should filter it.

 

 

 

When I lived around Brisbane, I had to filter all my brewing water as the chlorine was so strong.

[Muss]

Thanks

 

Seems to be unanimous. the more people I talk to the more people suggest staying with town water.

[John1525228445]

Gday, Muss.

 

 

 

I've been brewing for about 30 years and using tank water for the last twenty without and problems. My tank has a small tank inside which catches and discards the first flow from the roof, eliminating the dust and bird crap; and a seive which catches all the feathers, leaves, dead beetles, etc. Most modern tanks are so equipped and if yours is you shouldn't have to worry.

 

 

 

Dont use the clorinated, fluoridated rubbish.... stay with pure (ish) tank water.

 

 

 

Regards, John.

[Muss]

Thanks John,

 

I have various debris filters in place so sounds like I should be right. I'll give it a go for a few months and compare but your right pure must be better

 

 

 

Cheers

[Gergy]

I have had my best results with brewing using filtered tank water, using a two stage (ceramic and activated charcoal) whole house water filter. The tanks had debris filters to catch any leaves and sticks.

 

Unfortunately now, as I have moved, I have to use town water. I'd use filtered tank water over town water any day. Pure is better.

[PB2]

Welcome to our forum...please read the post "Hello, who is it?"

[Muss]

Thanks the ayes have it I am going to brew with tank water from now on

 

 

 

Cheers Francis

[William]

Vote me in for the Nayes. Tap water has body - plenty of minerals and interest. Which is what you NEED for the majority of brews - guts! Bring it on!

 

 

 

I'll take the point for the clear lager type brews - go with rainwater.

 

 

 

But for Ale? For Stout? No argument in my mind.

[kieran]

bah! You're all completely nuts! :o

 

 

 

Saying that "town water is better" is like saying that newspaper is better than old Cleo mags for toilet paper. ;)

 

 

 

Water is the single most important ingredient in your brew, you guys all know this - 5% Alcohol beer = 95% water, in a beer.

 

 

 

The water profiles between different cities are so wildly variable, that you simply cannot say "use your town water" because in Adelaide, you're using water with much more Calcium and Chlorine which you wouldn't necessarily get in (for example) Melbourne. This makes the reference of town vs. rainwater completely irrelevant. Not to mention that the levels of said minerals (plus others like sulfates, for example) vary throughout the year in town water - depending on the water quality of the source water.

 

 

 

If you really want to work out what is better, take a sample of your tap water, and a sample of your rainwater - and take it to a NATA certified water testing facility (such as: http://www.awqc.com.au/about/about.htm ). They should be able to tell you the pH, Cl, SO4, CaCl3, Ca and other mineral contentin your waters. From that, choose whatever water suits the type of beer you're considering to brew.

 

 

 

Other than that, you can generally find water analysis results on most of the city water websites: eg:

 

 

 

http://www.sydneywater.com.au/WaterQual ... tyResults/

 

http://www.sawater.com.au/SAWater/Envir ... erQuality/

 

http://www.watercorporation.com.au/wate ... ntents.cfm

 

http://www.melbournewater.com.au/conten ... r_2005.asp

 

Brisbane is approx:

 

Calcium: 21.0 ppm

 

Sulfate: 20.0 ppm

 

Magnesium: 12.0 ppm

 

Chloride: 2.0 ppm

 

Sodium: 34.0 ppm

 

Bicarbonate: 115.0 ppm

 

PH: 7.0

 

 

 

Sorry I cant find a resource for NT apart from:

 

http://www.powerwater.com.au

 

 

 

Personally - in Adelaide, I used Spring water. There is a water analysis on every bottle, and its consistent, and I could match it with the brew I was doing at the time. 2x10L jugs did the trick and gave nice brew every time.

 

 

 

If water weren't so important - why is it that every brewery in the last 500 years has sprouted up on top of a spring? Although the Cooper's sure would know a lot about getting water matching right, after moving from their Leabrook source to Regency!

 

 

 

cya

 

K

[BigAl]

Again....Wot 'E' said. :roll:

 

 

 

Thanks Keiran saved me aggravating my RSIed wrists. :wink:

 

 

 

I think the only exception to the remark about breweries sprouting up over a spring would be Olympia Brewery in Washington State USA, I mean if they used that water no one would drink their beer, mate, you would not even put European carp in the water. :shock:

[kieran]

never tried an Olympia. Although it could be a part of their "secret recipe"!

 

 

 

I imagine that it must cost coopers a pretty penny to get their water right though, now that their leabrook spring is out of reach.. ?

[Oliver]

Kieran,

 

 

 

There's a water purification plant at the "new" brewery. Once the water (from a bore, I believe) is pure, they add back in the necessary salts.

[kieran]

Ahhh. I figured they must've had some decent setup there to do it. It obviously works because the product doesn't taste any different! :)

[Dr Smurto]

Ever thought of using the water from the OTHER brewery (for those who live in Adelaide)? Its cheap and if a brewery uses it then we can assume its fairly pure. I know its not the Coopers brewery but hey, all brewers are concerned with water quality! Its better than the tap water which does smell and taste bad. I have a water filter attached to the tap in the kitchen so all my brew water is filtered. Would be interested to know if anyone is using water from the OTHER brewery.

 

 

 

Cheers

 

DrSmurto

 

(and no, i am not a fan or an employee of the OTHER brewery :D )

[rossm]

In regards to water quality in the NT I can tell you this much, our water in Alice comes from an aquafier about ten Km out of town, I reckon it is great and have heard that it is the best water on the mainland, some people reckon it has salts etc in it, which is quite correct, but those who choose to buy spring water are well off the track. the local spring water companies just go to the same borefield that supplies the town potable water supply, and draw the water before it goes to the chlorination plant, they then bottle it and market it as spring water! it is probably passed through a UV unit to be sure there is no bacteria in it but that is all!

 

Yulara, the resort at Ayres Rock, is supplied by bore water also, but theirs is passed through a reverse osmosis unit, which I think you will find is the same as what Coopers do with the water they use, judging by the pictures I have seen of the new brewery, and a pretty reasonable size unit it is too!

[luv2Drink]

I use a mixture of Bore and Rainwater(tank) mine are ok, just don't drink enough to worry about it.

 

 

 

Jon

 

Katherine N.T

[kieran]

To be honest, I just use run-of-the-mill tap water in Melbourne. I have no problems here.. its great stuff (not as smelly as Adelaide water at least)..

 

and the one benefit I get out of using tap water again is that I get a bit of a tooth treatment every time I have a home brew (thanks to the fluoride in the water!).