Dechlorination

[Chris2012]

Gday, For my water prep I've so far been boiling up tap water, pouring into a sanitised plastic water container and sitting it for 24 hours to achieve decholrination. Is this an over kill? Could the water sit for a shorter time period ?

Cheers !

[tazcat]

You could use Campden tablets (sodium metabisulfite). One tablet will do 80L of water so for 20L batches you don't need much

[squirt in the turns]

Boiling it should do the trick without having to let it stand - chlorine won't stay dissolved in boiling water. Of course, depending on ambient temps, you'd have to let it stand for a good few hours for it to cool to pitcing temparatures (this is assuming you're not subsequently going to do a mash or full volume boil anyway).

This was discussed at some length over at AHB recently: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=64057

[emnpaul]

If you have good quality town water in your area you may not even have to boil it to sterilise or de-chlorinate. Until recently I was making kit and bit beers straight from the tap in the bath tub, without any problem that could be attributable to chlorine or chloramine, but I understand many areas are different. If it's heavily chlorinated you might get away with half a campden tablet as it will be pretty well rid of bugs. I'm not sure if campden tablets will sanitise water so if you are on tank water I would advise boiling to continue.

[bullfrog]

Boiling isn't going to do much where de-chlorinisation is concerned. Most municipal water treatment facilities treat water with chloramine, which is a less-volatile derivative of chlorine and isn't going to be removed through boiling or standing the water.

Throw a campden tablet into the water at least a day before using it and you'll get the results you're chasing. I used to do this before I realised the effect that chloramine has on the average brew is negligible and I haven't noticed a change in beer quality since ceasing the practice.

[squirt in the turns]

Boiling isn't going to do much where de-chlorinisation is concerned. Most municipal water treatment facilities treat water with chloramine, which is a less-volatile derivative of chlorine and isn't going to be removed through boiling or standing the water.

The consensus in the AHB thread I linked above seems to be that most supplies in Aus aren't treated with chloramine. I suppose that as with all adjustments to brewing water, it pays to know what you're starting with before trying to alter it.

To offer a different perspective: Burleigh Brewing use Gold Coast tap water and do absolutely nothing to it, and their beers are bloody brilliant.