# Brewing With Rainwater



## KHB (25/8/09)

I have done a search but cant seem to find many amswers. Ive got a big rainwater tank and am starting to think about using it for my brews. Is there anything i should be doing to it before i use it. Or is straight up fine??

Cheers
Scotsman


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## jimmyjack (25/8/09)

I use it straight from the tank to my HLT. Never had a problem. Great base water to build any mineral additions that you require.

Cheers,

JJ


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## A3k (25/8/09)

For AG it's boiled so the bugs will be killed.

I'd say you'd wan't to add some Gypsum and Calcium Chloride to get the calcium up to 50ppm. What kind of beer are you making?


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## KHB (25/8/09)

A3k said:


> For AG it's boiled so the bugs will be killed.
> 
> I'd say you'd wan't to add some Gypsum and Calcium Chloride to get the calcium up to 50ppm. What kind of beer are you making?




Will be making a Dr Smurto Landlord, i thought it would get boiled to kill any bugs when you do the boil anyway, so no need to preboil?

Cheers
Scotsman


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## Effect (25/8/09)

rainwater is great for lagers and such as it hardly has any of the things added to tap water...

for making an ale with rainwater, you may want to look into building your water...


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## A3k (25/8/09)

Scotsman06 said:


> Will be making a Dr Smurto Landlord, i thought it would get boiled to kill any bugs when you do the boil anyway, so no need to preboil?
> 
> Cheers
> Scotsman



Sorry, didn't explain myself very well.
I don't see any need to preboil. As you say, it'll be boiled anyway.

Are you going to be using salts / worrying about pH? As Jimmy Jack said, it's a good base to build your mineral profile as you can basically assume pure water.

the reason i mentioned the 50ppm of calcium is it's benificial to the yeast.


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## therook (25/8/09)

I'm on tank water which is made out of Poly and the roof of the shed is Zinculume.

Wes Smith worked out for me what i should be adding and he knows what he is talking about

23 Litre Batches

Burton on Trent
CaSO4 (calcium sulphate or gypsum) 15g
MgSO4 (magnesium sulphate or epsoms salts) 5g
CaCL2 (calcium chloride) 1.5g
Put all salts into mash

Pilsen
Leave water as is but add 0.5% of total grain bill Weyermann Acidulated malt to mash. Alternatively add 1.0ml of 85% Phosphoric acid to mash and sparge water.

General pale/ale style
CaSO4 (calcium sulphate or gypsum) 5g
MgSO4 (magnesium sulphate or epsoms salts) 1.0g
CaCL2 (calcium chloride) 1.0g
put all salts into mash


Stouts
3gms Caco3 (calcium carbonate)


No need to pre boil

Rook


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## KHB (25/8/09)

therook said:


> I'm on tank water which is made out of Poly and the roof of the shed is Zinculume.
> 
> Wes Smith worked out for me what i should be adding and he knows what he is talking about
> 
> ...



Burton on trent is the water used for timothy landlord??

Where abouts do you guys get these salts from??

Cheers
Scotsman


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## Kleiny (25/8/09)

Sponsor up the top stocks all the brewing salts required.

Check out there web page

Kleiny

Hay rook when Wes worked out those additions did you take him a sample of your rain water or are they just general guidelines for building up rain water?


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## A3k (25/8/09)

I got mine from Beerbelly.
I'm down south, and it only costs $6 delivery. Not sure if they deliver up your way, but it's definitely worth a phone call if you want to go down this path.

I've attached a spreadsheet from John Palmer that's pretty handy in sorting out what to do.

I don't think it's essential to do for all beer styles, but i'm not an experienced English bitter brewer. 

View attachment Acid_addition.xls


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## therook (25/8/09)

Kleiny said:


> Sponsor up the top stocks all the brewing salts required.
> 
> Check out there web page
> 
> ...




Trav,

He worked it on the house having a Zinculume Roof and the tank being Poly...

If the tank was made out of concrete it would be different

Rook


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## 3G (25/8/09)

Pretty sure the water for TTLL is pretty soft,


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## bulp (25/8/09)

therook said:


> Trav,
> 
> He worked it on the house having a Zinculume Roof and the tank being Poly...
> 
> ...



Gday Rook 

I'm looking at the same setup soon, getting a poly tank for the shed and i've got a zinculume roof, Have you noticed an improvement in your beers ? I've really been hanging out to make an oatmeal stout but i've been put off by my soft water (probably just over thinking it i spose)


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## KHB (25/8/09)

Ok i just found a beersmith file for water in adelaide, how do i set it up so when i add burton on trent water to my recip[e it will tell me what i need to add??

Cheers


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## A3k (25/8/09)

Scotsman06 said:


> Ok i just found a beersmith file for water in adelaide, how do i set it up so when i add burton on trent water to my recip[e it will tell me what i need to add??
> 
> Cheers



I don't think beersmith can calculate it for you.
If you put the Adelaide profile in, and burton on trent as your target, then you can play around with the salts until the totals in the difference row are close to zero.

Al


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## A3k (25/8/09)

Do you mind chucking the beersmith file for adelaide water on? I wouldn't mind comparing it to mine. It's probalby a different resevior though.

Thanks,
Al


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## KHB (25/8/09)

A3k said:


> Do you mind chucking the beersmith file for adelaide water on? I wouldn't mind comparing it to mine. It's probalby a different resevior though.
> 
> Thanks,
> Al



Adelaide, SA
Calcium(Ca): 27.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 14.0 ppm
Sodium(Na): 74.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 59.0 ppm
Chloride (Cl): 123.0 ppm
Bicarbonate(HCO3): 66.0 ppm
PH: 7.4 PH

I still need to wrap my head around making additions.

Cheers


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## buttersd70 (25/8/09)

Theres a _massive _difference between Yorkshire (where Taylors is) water and Burton on Trent.

edit: I made a post earlier on today in the Landlord thread, discussing Yorkshire water.


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## A3k (25/8/09)

Yeah, the profile i have is pretty similar to that
Calcium (ppm)	24
Magnesium (ppm)	16
Alkalinity as CaCO3	49
Sodium (ppm)	54
Chloride (ppm)	125
Sulfate (ppm)	54
Water pH	7.3

John Palmers book "how to brew" has a decent explanation of it and a graph to help. And that spreadsheet i attached earlier in the thread is pretty handy to help get the pH right.

Cheers,
Al


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## KHB (25/8/09)

A3k said:


> Yeah, the profile i have is pretty similar to that
> Calcium (ppm)	24
> Magnesium (ppm)	16
> Alkalinity as CaCO3	49
> ...




I couldnt get the graph to load on my computer properlly


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## A3k (25/8/09)

Cool, i found where i got it from
http://howtobrew.com/section3/Palmers_Mash_RA_ver2d.xls


and the section of how to brew.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-3.html

Cheers,
Al


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## drsmurto (25/8/09)

I'd suggest using your rainwater as is the 1st time.

My next TTL will be using straight rainwater. 

In the past (for bitters) i added CaSO4, CaCl2 and CaCO3 to get 50 ppm of Ca without adding vast amounts of Cl, SO4 or CO3.


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## Bill8o (25/8/09)

I've been using tank water since my tap water started to taste like dirt. We had a big down pour after a long dry spell which apparently washed excess manganate was washed into the dams. Dirt flavored beer ain't the best taste.

I've only done ten or so AG's and I haven't started to play around with water chemistry yet except for an addition of 5.2 stabilizer for the mash and all of my beers have turned out great.

My roof is corrugated iron with a bit of rust in the guttering and I'm using a poly tank. I guess one important thing to consider is the amount of leaf matter that might collect in your guttering, or maybe this is not an issue? I guess I should get up on the roof and have a look


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## KHB (25/8/09)

DrSmurto said:


> I'd suggest using your rainwater as is the 1st time.
> 
> My next TTL will be using straight rainwater.
> 
> In the past (for bitters) i added CaSO4, CaCl2 and CaCO3 to get 50 ppm of Ca without adding vast amounts of Cl, SO4 or CO3.




I was thinking of using it straight the first time too.


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## matt white (25/8/09)

I've only ever used rainwater. 30+ BIABS with no probs to date.

I do run 20 micron and 5 micron filters to the house supply which are replaced regularly.


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## I like beer (25/8/09)

Have brewed with rainwater for 15 years and never had add brewing salts untill I started all grain (biab) where if I don't add salts I go from 75-80% efficiency to 45-50%(living on the coast so maybe this has something to do with efficiecies


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