Boil Or Not To Boil

[frasertag]

Hi fellas

im new to these forums
I live just outside of canberra.. anyways i live on tank water no mains at all.

I have been boiling water and bottling it in clean bottles.
on brew day i boil up around 6 litres hot, add in extras such as honey and extra ginger for a ginger beer etc cover with clingwrap and wait to cool abit.
I then add the kit to the fermenter ad two litres of this water add in sugars then add some of my boiled bottle water, then the some more hot and so on till i get the right level of heat in the wort, pitch the yeast and you know the rest.

My question is do you guys think i need to be this careful with my water? its untreated rain water, its clear but i just dont know if i can trust it.. so far this method works but involves boiling water waiting for it to cool bottling it this has to be done the day before...

 

[citizensnips]

is your tank old and dirty or clean and new? your probably best of just boiling it to ensure you dont lose 23 litres of beer.

 

[snagler]

You could always use the water out of your hot water system, it should be free of bugs

 

[Deja_vu]

I'm no expert, but Could you just get a big 25 litre stock pot and boil up the whole lot i.e. ingredients and water? However you would need some way of cooling it quickly..

 

[frasertag]

I'm no expert, but Could you just get a big 25 litre stock pot and boil up the whole lot i.e. ingredients and water? However you would need some way of cooling it quickly..

my very first time i tried using a larger pot around 15 litres it took around 2 hours to cool
then i needed another 5 litres to make 20... it was not fun, i was worried i would spoil it taking so long, but it worked im actually drinking one of these tonight

 

[Enerjex]

2 hours should be fine as long as the fermenter is sealed up in the fridge. I've been no-chilling (not a can of worms!) 23 litre batches from boiling to pitching temp. Basically this means I put the hot wort in the fermenter (some use a cube) put it in the fridge and come back the next day and pitch the yeast when it's at the right temperature. I believe people keep wort in cubes for longer than this until they have fermenters free.

 

[0M39A]

I have brewed heaps with rainwater that has just been passed through a filter at the pump plenty of times before and never had a problem with it.

 

[Inge]

If you have at least a decent (1 micron) filter attached to your tap or a screen and filter on your pump, you should be fine. The minuscule amount of bugs that get through, if any, will pose no threat especially once the yeast is pitched.

If you, like me, have no filter between the tank and your tap, you'd be right not trusting it. Rainwater although it tastes great and looks clear, is usually exceptionally dirty. I learned this the hard way after brewing a few substandard beers and having one infected. So, boiling is the best option. If you can't do a full boil, look into getting a 25L plastic jerry can from Bunnings, and filling the water up from a scheme source. This is what I do, and I have had no problems so far.

Keep in mind that if you are looking into partial mashing or even all grain, rainwater is probably too soft to be ideal, and you will have to add some minerals to it.

 

[tangent]

Keep in mind that if you are looking into partial mashing or even all grain, rainwater is probably too soft to be ideal, and you will have to add some minerals to it.

unless you like clean crisp lagers/pilsners.

 

[pint of lager]

Back when I was doing kits, all my brews were 100% infected, easily traced back to the tank water.

I then started boiling all my brewing water the day before brewing and pouring it into a cleaned and sanitised fermenter.

If you don't use the boiled water within a few days, throw it on the garden. Boiling will not provide 100% kill in the water, micronutrients are still available and bugs can prosper in the water.

Don't pour boiling water on those stick on thermometers, or you will kill them.

Boiling does remove the dissolved oxygen, so airate well.

Tank water is usually a great base for brewing with as it is very soft and highly suitable for lagers and pilsners. For ales, you can use brewing software, different salts and adjust your water ion profile to match any of the water profiles from famous brewing areas.

With ag brewing, you are doing a 90 minute boil so no need to preboil the water.