AbbeyBeer Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Is distilled water any good for brewing beer? I believe Heineken uses purified water. Does it make a difference? I can get distilled water for free instead of paying $10 for 20 litres of mineral water each time I brew beer. I know you can boil tap water to remove chlorine but I’ll rather pay $10 instead of standing and boiling 23 litres of water. Any good advice here please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Are you brewing all grain beers or extract? The thread below may be of help or totally confound you. https://www.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/topic/13763/ I would think Heineken would add minerals to their purified water to get the mineral content they want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbbeyBeer Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 Are you brewing all grain beers or extract?The thread below may be of help or totally confound you. https://www.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/topic/13763/ I would think Heineken would add minerals to their purified water to get the mineral content they want. I am currently only using extracts. Thanks for the link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I use distilled water for my pilsners, but I add small amounts of minerals back into it. For other styles I just use normal tap water usually, although have been experimenting with different mineral additions to it to see what happens. However, I am brewing all grain rather than kits, so the water profiling is a much more important part of how the beer turns out than it is with kit brewing. I would imagine Heineken would be adding minerals back in as well; I suppose you could brew a beer with water that had no minerals in it but I can't imagine them doing so. The minerals affect the flavour and also yeast health. Does your tap water contain a lot of chlorine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrie Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Otto - I have been using water filtered by a reverse osmosis filter which I believe makes water similar to distilled. I have not had any yeast start up issues using this water. I also have access to bore water which does contain considerable minerals. Do you think I would be better off using this bore water? I did not want to use it as I was not sure if there could be any bacterial or other organisms that could infect the wort. Has anyone on this forum used bore water and if so have you had any issues doing so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 It's different with kits Morrie, because the water used to originally brew them in the brewery contains minerals, and then the resultant wort is concentrated down into the syrup you buy, so it makes little difference by the time you mix it up in the fermenter. The RO water may be better for them for this reason. In all grain brewing, you are obviously making it all from scratch and so some minerals are needed in the mash water because there are no pre-made parts to it. Having said that, I've had no issues with the yeast working on my pilsners and the water I use is very very soft, containing less than 10ppm of pretty much every mineral brewers are concerned with (exception being HCO3). Other styles I just brew with tap water, sometimes I add either CaCl or gypsum depending on whether I want to accentuate the malt or hops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrie Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Appreciate your help here Otto. I have ordered some TC Bootmaker cans and some light liquid malt extract. Could you recommend to me some hop and yeast types I could trial with this to enhance it further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I'd say any of the American "C" hops would go well with it, i.e. Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Citra, Columbus etc., American ale yeast would go nicely (which is probably what's under the lid), but you could get some US-05 or similar if you wanted to. If it was me I'd probably just brew it with the light malt first, and then decide if it could be improved with added hops. I've not tried that tin, it's been nearly 4 years since I brewed a kit beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrie Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Thanks for your ideas mate. That is what I was intending to do... just do the standard brew first to establish a base line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristinaS1 Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Hi Morrie. 1+ what Kelsey said. If you are using kits, low mineral water like distilled/RO/rainwater is the way to go. If you can get it for free, that is what you should use, especially if you are making a light coloured kits; it is absolutely essential if you are making a Pilsener kit. Cheers! -Christina. PS In kit brewing the only time you want to use water with minerals is if you rehydrate your yeast. Good idea BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbbeyBeer Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 I use distilled water for my pilsners' date=' but I add small amounts of minerals back into it. For other styles I just use normal tap water usually, although have been experimenting with different mineral additions to it to see what happens. However, I am brewing all grain rather than kits, so the water profiling is a much more important part of how the beer turns out than it is with kit brewing. I would imagine Heineken would be adding minerals back in as well; I suppose you could brew a beer with water that had no minerals in it but I can't imagine them doing so. The minerals affect the flavour and also yeast health. Does your tap water contain a lot of chlorine? [/quote'] I live in Perth and tap water is perfect for drinking. However you can taste chlorine in the water. For now I will continue using mineral water. When I start all grain brewing I will start trying new things. Thanks for the info on this topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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