Distilled Water

[Nevalicious]

Adelaide <snip> the best brewers in the country come from there

Why thanks Haysie

Yep, very little water treatment is needed for most beer styles if brewing in Adelaide. People like Smurto et al I believe use salts and other additions due to the fact they're on rainwater, or atleast using it for brewing.

BeerBelly84, I wouldn't bother personally at this time mate. Fine tune other step and processes before delving down this path...

My 2.37c

Nev

 

[Wolfy]

You can not just go to the store and buy 4 liters of distilled water for 1 buck or 2? Must be a USA thing.

Must be. All we have is 'demineralized' water useful for irons or batteries

I dont breed fish, I catch them , kill them and eat them Whiting are my favorite.

We do and the critters cope fine with water run through a standard bench-top filter, we've also seen various people who simply run a hose straight from the tap into the tank with no adverse effects. Think it is like many other things, including brewing, you can make it as hard or as easy as you like.

 

[manticle]

Melbourne's tap water has always been good, fantastic for breeding tropical fish but...you're still gonna' have chlorine and chloramine which will need to be removed for the fish. Personally I don't want it in my beer either. A drum full of water placed in a shady place for a few days will usually allow the chlorine to disapate but the chloramine will remain.

Pretty sure Melbourne water is not treated with chloramine (at least not yet).

 

[felten]

Some parts of SA and WA get chloramines I think, but not Melbourne.

 

[eamonnfoley]

I dont breed fish, I catch them , kill them and eat them Whiting are my favorite.

Hear what you are saying re RO water but the water here in Melbourne is so soft, most mashes/beers do very well, you can adjust without the RO or tablet treatment. Filtration of what? Adelaide is meant to be the worst water in Australia yet some of the best brewers in the country come from there with minimal additions or filtartion to the tap water.

Water chemistry can make a difference but filtartion is a waste of time if the water is good to start with.

Adelaide doesnt necessarily have bad water, its just high in permanent hardness from memory - which is good for many beer styles. Parts of Perth have terrible water for brewing. Sodium above 100ppm and Chloride above 200ppm! WTF! And never mind the chlorine and chloramines which can be filtered out easy enough.

 

[tavas]

You can not just go to the store and buy 4 liters of distilled water for 1 buck or 2? Must be a USA thing.

Yes you can. Coles, Woolies, IGA and Bunnings all sell distilled water. Around $2.50 for 4 litres. Kmart and Big W probably do as well

Or you could make your own. And if you're really keen, you could filter your water through a Brita jug which has ion exchange resins to remove chlorine, copper, lead, aluminium and will fix your bunions and mow your lawn for you if you believe the literature.

And for the record, Perth water doesn't contain chloramines. Only chlorine. Chloramine is used in some parts of WA but not Perth.

 

[yankinoz]

Please let me know where you can get brewing-quantities of distilled water from?
The lab-supply place I usually use want to charge $10/L and at that price, its not something I'd consider using to brew with.

Try a car parts shop. Many also stock ROR (demineralized) water at a lower price.

If the problem with tap water is off tastes, and these carry over or amplify in brews, the problem may be organic matter in the water, along with compounds formed by the reaction of organic matter with chlorine. Brita and other charcoal filters remove organic matter and its products, but do not substantially affect mineral content.

 

[Spiesy]

Having trouble tracking down destilled water.

I need it to calibrate a pH meter that I have - but all I can find is demineralised water. I've tried Masters and SuperCheap Auto, both only stock demineralised.

So:

1. I know they are different waters, but for the purpose of calibrating my pH meter - will demineralised water suffice?
2. Anyone know where I can easily obtain destilled water?

 

[nu_brew]

I think they have it in the cleaning aisle of the supermarket for putting in your iron. Although it could be demineralised only.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

You will have more luck looking for distilled water.

It is getting harder to find. De-mineralised should do the same job

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Or try this

http://m.wikihow.com/Make-Distilled-Water

 

[Spiesy]

Found destilled water at the local supermarket, Woolworths. It's around 80c/L.

 

[ricardo]

I bought some distilled water 2 weeks ago in Mitre 10 for calibrating my pH meter

 

[ricardo]

For anybody who is interested in using Ice House spring water that is on sale quite cheap at Dan Murphy, here is the response I got back regarding an email I sent asking about the water profile.

"Thank you for contacting our product website with your question on Icehouse Natural Spring Water. Customer contacts and feedback are very important to us and we appreciate that you have taken the time to inquire about mineral content. This inquiry is usually from customers wanting to ensure they will not getting scaling in their coffee machines!

Our natural spring products are manufactured in accordance with industry and regulatory requirements. We are a member of ABWI (Australasian Bottled Water Institute) and as such, must manufacture to the standards governing our industry, including those of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). ABWI have a guidance range for acidity of 3.5 to 8.5.

Our internal specification for pH on our natural spring water is 6.0 to 8.0 and we generally operate between 6.0 and 7.0. We have an extensive Quality Control program and onsite testing laboratories that assess, amongst many specification parameters, the pH of our water – at source, in tankers, in tanks and as finished product.

As natural products can demonstrate seasonal variation in content, we conduct regular technical reviews on primary components. Outcomes from our most recent review are as provided to you as guidance only:
Bicarbonate 26 mg/L
Calcium 3 mg/L
Chloride 7 mg/L
Magnesium 3 mg/L
Potassium 1 mg/L
Sodium 8 mg/L

Thank you for your inquiry. We hope that you continue to enjoy our fine range of natural spring water products".

 

[skb]

I am lolling at modifying my water in Sydney to get a try pilsner water style. My first step I am planning is to dilute tap with distilled. But as mentioned I find lots of deminerlised but not distilled.

Am I correct in saying I can use deminerlised anyway as it appears to have taken all the relevant minerals out (Ca,Mg,HCO etc) and the only difference is some organic. It almost seems like it is the same your would get from an RO filter.

SKB