"natural" Brown Water Sediment In Mains Supply

[reVoxAHB]

Buggered atm :angry:

I'm at the start of a brew-day, with approx. 60L of water filtered into my HLT... filling to 100L. I pulled the hose off the HLT to rinse a white bucket and found the water very dirty brown, almost green in colour. Rang SouthEast water immediately to report a fault. The rep checked with her techs, council, etc. assuring me NO one was out working in my area (Albert Park, South Melbourne).

This happened last week, as well. We have plenty of properties around us in all manner of renovation atm.. dunno if someone is filling tanks from the hydrants or messing with the mains. Irregardless, the water shits itself (quite literally) and it takes hours to flush clean again (despite SouthEast water saying it takes only 2 mins).

Chick on the phone said, "Don't worry, it's only natural sediment in the mains.. nothing to worry about at all, whatsoever!" When I asked her what the sediment is exactly, she didn't know.

So what is the shit?

Is my brew-day ruined? Dump the 60L into the garden and refilter for tomorrow? Water appears clean in the HLT atm. Not sure what % of sediment made it into HLT or if my filter is grabbing it all. Need another 40L which doesn't look like it's happening in the next few hours.

reVox

 

[fraser_john]

Some old pipes are cast iron, maybe its iron sediment? Sounds awful though

 

[reVoxAHB]

Luverly. Water back to normal. Brew day back on.

I take it this is not the best way to make amber ? :lol:

Cheers,
reVox

 

[AndrewQLD]

Luverly. Water back to normal. Brew day back on.

I take it this is not the best way to make amber ? :lol:

Cheers,
reVox

Shouldn't really be an issue if your filtering your water into the HLT, however I'm sure your filter cartridge won't like you

Andrew

 

[MarkBastard]

The way I work things out is asking myself the question "would you drink it".

If you wouldn't drink the water as is you shouldn't drink it as part of your beer.

Likewise after for example cleaning a keg, if I want to know whether it's clean enough or not I ask myself would I drink water from it.

 

[reVoxAHB]

Shouldn't really be an issue if your filtering your water into the HLT, however I'm sure your filter cartridge won't like you

Andrew

And bugger that I installed a new cartridge this morning, too.

Bah, them's the brakes I guess.

Cheers all,
reVox

 

[newguy]

As fraser_john said, it could be rust. All water will have a small amount of sediment, even filtered/treated municipal supplies. It naturally settles out whenever the water stands.

Rust in particular can have a nasty laxative effect.