Water Quality

nickdablack · Post by **nickdablack** » Sunday Mar 19, 2006 4:21 pm

Iv'e tried searching the threads and have found not much on the topic. Do many of you use filtered water? More importantly do many of you from Melbourne use filtered water?
The reason I ask is the quality of water can vary heaps from state to state, depending on where your water supply comes from. I've been in some states where its healthier to drink coke than water that hasnt been at least boiled.
I'm up to my 6th brew now and ive been using tap water. These have all turned out fine. But I would say the quality of water where I live is pretty good. We have a water filter at home and the water tastes the same before and after filtering. (We put it away as there was no use for it)

Anyone else have any thoughts on the topic?

Wassa · Post by **Wassa** » Sunday Mar 19, 2006 6:32 pm

I usually use filtered waqter and we also usually boil it. it we can't get filtered water we use bottled spring water.

tcc · Post by **tcc** » Sunday Mar 19, 2006 8:45 pm

i found this link on another brewing forum a while back, it has listings of the mineral contents of a lot of different brands of bottled water, might come in handy if you plan to mash

http://mineralwaters.org

beerboy · Post by **beerboy** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 4:46 am

The harder the water the better, but you must filter the chlorine out of it. Apparently the big breweries use additives to make their water harder.

MattR · Post by **MattR** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 9:28 am

Hi,

I have a 3-stage RO unit. I've had no problems and it tastes a lot better than tap water

Cheers,
Matt

JaCk_SpArRoW · Post by **JaCk_SpArRoW** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 9:30 am

I just use a 10L bucket filter....bucket, hole cut in the bottom with a Brita filter pushed thru the hole...works a treat!!!

Rubber.Piggy · Post by **Rubber.Piggy** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 9:49 am

I filter my water to remove chlorine, made a big difference to my beer. Until recently I lived in melbourne.

I use a similar system to Jack, expect mines rigged to go into a drum, this way I filter my water in advance instead of standing around like fool.

Btw, Brita filters are only garanteed to filter 8L of water per day. They need a break to encapsulate the chlorine so it doesn't just come out again.

JaCk_SpArRoW · Post by **JaCk_SpArRoW** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 10:03 am

Yeah Im only filtering 10L anyway which I just hang the bucket up over the fermenter & then go have a beer...come back & its all good, top up & pitch...its that simple!

Aussie Claret · Post by **Aussie Claret** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 1:49 pm

Beer boy,
I believe that the type of water, hard / soft, pH and minerals in the water vary depending upon the type of beer you want to make.
Hard water that is alkaline and has alot of minerals, similar to those in Dublin are great for making Stouts, the reason being that the roasted darker grains reduce the pH in the mash down to the acidic conditions required; whereas the water where Pilsner urquell is made is soft, very slightly alkaline to neutral and has little salts; the base malts used reduce the pH to a lesser degree than darker malts, bringing the mash pH into the required range.

So the hardness of the water and its chemical and pH profile varies with the type of beer you want to produce. The lower the chlorine content the better as has been said.

The link below from How to brew (Palmer) is an interesting read. Oh by the way I obtained a test report for the local water for Northern GC and the quality of the water is similar to that in the Czech republic where Pilsner Urqell is made, the pH is 7.5 and there are few minerals.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-1.html

AC

ex0ja · Post by **ex0ja** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 3:18 pm

The water at my place seems to be really dodgy. If I turn on the hot water tap it comes out a white colour. Anyone know what this means?

Because of this, I have only been using the spring water you buy from the supermarket for my beer. Buying spring water all the time costs a lot, so I'm thinking of getting some sort of filter set up but I don't even trust a filter with my tap water.

What do you think?

MattR · Post by **MattR** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 5:24 pm

ex0ja wrote:I don't even trust a filter with my tap water. What do you think?

A reverse osmosis (RO) unit will do the job. They come in various configurations from 1 stage to 5 stages depending on what your trying to achieve. A 3-stage is very common and rather cheap (circa $325). On average they remove 95-98% of all impurities in water. Look up water filter suppliers in the yellow pages and give them a call. Thye can do tests on your water and on the unit itself that will give you more confidence.

Cheers,
Matt

pharmaboy · Post by **pharmaboy** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 5:45 pm

further to aussie clarets post, if you want to do an IPA, then Burton on trent is the water you want - fairly minerally, and copied by many breweries for the style (and others).

You can get water quality from your local water authorities web page, then compare it to others in beersmith software - it will tell you the breakdown of waters of the world. Chlorine is bad, but if you cant tell the diff between filtered smell and unfiltered then chlorine is not likely a problem (assuming your water filter was a decent carbon filter.)

chris. · Post by **chris.** » Monday Mar 20, 2006 5:45 pm

MattR wrote:
ex0ja wrote:I don't even trust a filter with my tap water. What do you think?
A reverse osmosis (RO) unit will do the job. They come in various configurations from 1 stage to 5 stages depending on what your trying to achieve. A 3-stage is very common and rather cheap (circa $325). On average they remove 95-98% of all impurities in water. Look up water filter suppliers in the yellow pages and give them a call. Thye can do tests on your water and on the unit itself that will give you more confidence.

Cheers,
Matt

Be careful using RO water Matt. RO can remove minerals etc that are beneficial to yeast like calcium, various salts etc. It can be a bit of an overkill.
I myself use a carbon block filter that cost around $40-50.

Aussie Claret · Post by **Aussie Claret** » Tuesday Mar 21, 2006 9:37 am

Hi,
The easiest and most economical method for obtaining good quality water, is the two canister tap / sink filter. One canister has a charcoal filter and the other canister a fine filter to take out any floaties. Ive got one at home and the filters need to be replaced approximately every year and cost about $30.

exoJa - I would imagine that the white stuff from your hot tap is simply air bubbles, but you shouldn't be using your hot water supply for homebrewing due to minerals, sludge etc that builds up in the water heater.

Cheers and beers
AC

ex0ja · Post by **ex0ja** » Tuesday Mar 21, 2006 11:11 am

Aussie Claret wrote:exoJa - I would imagine that the white stuff from your hot tap is simply air bubbles, but you shouldn't be using your hot water supply for homebrewing due to minerals, sludge etc that builds up in the water heater.

Yeah it does look like bubbles! I've always thought it could be that. Its just seemed strange that I've never seen it come out of any other hot water tape like this before. I never use the hot water tap for home brew anyway, I'm just saying this puts me off using tap water altogether. I've also heard turning on the hot water heats up the pipes and gunk and grime stuck to the inside of them comes off and into your water.

flosso · Post by **flosso** » Tuesday Mar 21, 2006 12:51 pm

ex0ja,

Just for some comfort my hot water tap in the kitchen does exactly the same thing. I fill up a glass, it looks white and I can actually hear the bubbles popping (or effervescing as the case may be). If I let it sit for a little bit the bubbles disappear and the water looks clear.

Paleman · Post by **Paleman** » Tuesday Mar 21, 2006 1:14 pm

My brews have improved out of sight since converting from tap water ( mains ) to using rain water.

ex0ja · Post by **ex0ja** » Tuesday Mar 21, 2006 2:54 pm

I guess I should just give tap water a shot and see how the brew turns out.

kurtz · Post by **kurtz** » Tuesday Mar 21, 2006 8:19 pm

If you are mashing then the mineral content of the water you are using is of significance, though that been said the nearest I get to water adjustment is some gypsum when I make particularly british ales. If I wanted a really authentic Alt then I might mix and match some minerals, but then I would probably be more interested in the hopping regime, the fermentation temperature and the yeast.
If you kit/extract even partial mash and your water is potable, just use it. You may want to let it stand or perhaps boil it to drive off that municipal Chlorine. Not certain of the effect of RO on kit/extract/partials but in the case of mashing it is in fact detrimental as it removes minerals important to yeast health.
In short, if you smell Chlorine in your tap water take steps to reduce it, else worry about more important things.

K

MattR · Post by **MattR** » Tuesday Mar 21, 2006 8:19 pm

chris. wrote:Be careful using RO water Matt. RO can remove minerals etc that are beneficial to yeast like calcium, various salts etc. It can be a bit of an overkill. I myself use a carbon block filter that cost around $40-50.

That's what I've read but I think both malt and hops contain enough minerals to provide what the yeast will need. If your wort had a high percentage of dextrose it might be a problem. It should be simple enough to conduct an experiment.

I believe the primary benefit of using RO will be the near total reduction of nitrate. Nitrate reduces the ability of water to carry minerals such as calcium, magnesium and phosphate which depresses the ph of water. In some parts of Australia tap water can contain as much as 30mg/l nitrate which is somewhat toxic (relative). When converted to nitrite it is even more so.

I think, depending on your water source that simple resin type filtration may be adequate but there will be places where RO is recommended.

Food for though anyhow.

Cheers,
Matt