Brewing With Tank Water

[kiwisteveo]

May be a silly question but have moved to the country and are on tank water will i have to boil it before i use it,(fairly new house and tanks)water tastes fine to me.Any suggestions appreciated so thanks off to the pub for an hour or two

 

[zoidbergmerc]

It'll be fine.

 

[Pennywise]

will i have to boil it before i use it

Yes

 

[chestynuts]

Is the "tank water" rain or treated ground? I lived on a farm for many years when young and we had both rain water for drinking and treated ground water for washing. The rain water should always be boiled as a precaution when drinking as if could have the potential to house bugs in the tank (depends on various factors). When brewing, the rain water would have less ions (salts) than typical residential tap water, which in turn could change the taste of the brew. If its treated ground water (we had to treat it ourselves to remove the iron and adjust the pH) it should also be boiled and will again produce a different taste. Back to your question though, you probably should boil the tank water to kill any bugs. Remember people don't swim in chemical free pools because of the nasties.
Boiling was a pain but you get use to it.

 

[phinnsfotos]

<Just some random internet idiot's opinion>

The idea behind sanitization is to reduce the microbes to an acceptable level. No I have no idea of what that definition of acceptable is and more importantly I'll assume neither of us have the ability to test it.

I imagine the problem with rain water is that it's an unknown. The existing microbial level is unknown and changing and therefore what needs to be done to reduce that level to acceptable is unknown and changing.

Your rain water could be cleaner than tap water (sorry but anyone who thinks their tap water is sterile is an idiot, but most town water is probably sufficiently sanitary for brewing). Or your rain water could be 1000's of times less sanitary than tap water, and it could change day to day.

Boiling your rain water will change the unknown to known and reduce the microbial level to a fairly well understood level, being almost nothing. Many things will survive boiling water but most (maybe all) yeast and bacteria wont. Prions will happily pass through an autoclav with 138 degrees C steam and high pressure.

So the main question, do you need to? No idea; sorry. Maybe run a few cheap brews (Cooper's kit and kilo) and see how you go. If you're happy with the results without boiling then keep going. If you're brew forms a society, develops a written language and elects a leader, then time to look at boiling.

Maybe you could try dissolving some light dry malt into some rain water and sealing (glad wrap) it and leave it for a week. Then view that as the "worst case" scenario

</ Just some random internet idiot's opinion>

 

[Phoney]

Is the "tank water" rain or treated ground? I lived on a farm for many years when young and we had both rain water for drinking and treated ground water for washing. The rain water should always be boiled as a precaution when drinking as if could have the potential to house bugs in the tank (depends on various factors). When brewing, the rain water would have less ions (salts) than typical residential tap water, which in turn could change the taste of the brew. If its treated ground water (we had to treat it ourselves to remove the iron and adjust the pH) it should also be boiled and will again produce a different taste. Back to your question though, you probably should boil the tank water to kill any bugs. Remember people don't swim in chemical free pools because of the nasties.
Boiling was a pain but you get use to it.

Really? I grew up on tank water as well, and we never ever boiled it. My mum still lives on tank water to this day and doesn't boil it either. :huh:

 

[Peteoz77]

Remember people don't swim in chemical free pools because of the nasties.

Really? How about lakes, rivers, streams and maybe even the ocean? None of them are clean, but I have done and still do swim in all of them....

As for the brewing water... if you can drink it and it's fine.. you shouldbe able to brew with it...

 

[Batz]

Really? I grew up on tank water as well, and we never ever boiled it. My mum still lives on tank water to this day and doesn't boil it either. :huh:

All we have is tank water as well, we only boil it for tea and coffee. I'll be more inclined to boil the concoction that comes out of those city taps than rain water.

Batz

 

[earle]

60 odd brews with untreated rainwater tank water with no problems. We also drink the water with no ill effects. You may like to consider what could be washed into your tank, e.g. is you roof frequented by lots of birds. The carpet snakes in our roof keep the bird population under control :huh:

 

[jiesu]

Their is also all sorts of pollutants, soils, bacteria and plant matter in dams and rivers. You might swim in it but I would think twice before brewing with it.
Have you had a look in the tank? is it clean? any algae in there or mosquito larvae?
There could well be wild yeasts in your water that wont necessarily effect the drinking quality but I am willing to wager it would effect the flavours within the brew.
I guess the botom line is do you want more control over the taste and flavour of your brew or are you happy to go with less effort and control and a higher risk of infection.
You have to boil your wort anyway and I use very very cold pre boiled water to get to my final volume and get the wort down from the chilled 27 28 degress down to pitching temp of about 19 20, and I am on city water.

 

[driveitlikeustoleit]

Rule of thumb, if you can drink it, you can brew with it. It'll get boiled with hops yeah? :icon_cheers:

 

[jtsteel]

All we have is tank water as well, we only boil it for tea and coffee. I'll be more inclined to boil the concoction than comes out of those city taps than rain water.

Batz

+1

 

[phinnsfotos]

A point worth considering would be what type of brewing do you do? If it's all grain and you're boiling the full wort then it's probably not as important. If it's kit/extract and you're toping up the fermenter with tank water then it's a lot more important.

 

[komodo]

^ Im with these guys. If you can drink it - brew with it!

As for the pool thing. Pfft what a crock of shit. I'm currently looking at moving and building a house. One of the requirements of the house will be access to build a natural pool. No chemicals. No salt. Just plants. Safe to drink. Safe for the family pet to jump in. No health or skin issues

 

[kiwisteveo]

sweet,cheers for all the info think i'll do a few brews without boiling it as have been drinking the tank water and are still alive and have already looked inside the tanks(all rainwater, new gutters so look to be pretty clean)time to oder some stuff choice,cheers

 

[chestynuts]

Ok lads easy on the tank water comments. Sorry for posting my knowledge of water on the forum. If people want to be ingnorante then thats there provocative. Lakes, streams and the ocean each have their own ecosystems that keep everything in balance. Sometimes they get out balance eg. there are numerous times in summer when they say not to swin in sections of the swan river. For those who do drink tank water, fair enough it may be better than scheme water but next time you get the runs don't automatically think it is something you ate. It may be perfectly fine to brew with. Every tank would be different as is every country why don't people drink the tap water in Bali? Komodo building a natural pool with plants is an excellent way to do it as the plants will keep control of the nutrients but most pools don't have plants to do this. Batz may you tell me what actually comes out of the city taps? I'm interested. Rain water will still effect the taste of the brew some of you may want to read about brewing water.

 

[BEC26]

This was in todays Sydeny Morning Herald

PEOPLE who drink from their rainwater tanks may be consuming unacceptable levels of lead, a study says.

Scientists from the University of Technology, Sydney, assessed the quality of water stored in household tanks around the city and found that five of the 11 tanks contained lead levels exceeding 0.01 milligrams a litre - the amount considered safe in drinking water by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

They also found the turbidity, or murkiness, of the water exceeded acceptable levels, as did the pH levels in some tanks.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/rainwate...00409-ryu0.html

Probably more geared towards city dwellers, but also where ever Lead is mined (Broken Hill where I used to live - and the footy coach gave the kids tank water for half time - I nearly killed him!!!)

Just some info

Cheers

 

[Ross]

Brewing with untreated tank water is like playing Russian Roulette - one day you will DEFINATELY loose a brew to infection & most likely every brew will be contaminated even if you can't indentify it. If you are kegging you are more likely to get away with it but if you are bottling you are taking a high risk of future bottle bombs - It just ain't worth it. If you don't want the effort of treating your tank water (for instance by boiling, UV, RO or chemicals) then bring a jerry can of mains water back home from work or a mates place & use that.

I'm sorry, but those recommending using untreated tank water (whether they've lost a brew or not) for brewing are giving bad advice!!!

Cheers Ross

 

[Spiderpig]

I'm with Ross... Only ever did two brews using my tank water and ended up with bottle gushers on both. Same maticulous santisation process applied, so nothing to do with that. Only ever used town water since and never had a single problem. Stay right away from it mate, Yeasties will react to any organism in the water whether you tase it there or not... My two krona's worth...

 

[wynnum1]

Have you tasted brisbane water lately use boiled tank water