Water

[paullys brew]

Ive always used bought water, spring water etc to do all of my brews as Ive been to scared not to. I use homebrand unscented Nappisan to do all of my cleaning, then a really good rinse & Starsan to sanitize. I usually buy 2 10 litre water drums from coles or woolworths, but have found the cost of all my brews just keeps adding up with having to purchase water on top. I always chill them atleast 24hrs before a brew & have found it gives me a final temp of 20 -24 degrees before adding my rehydrated yeast.

On my last brew I was going to boil up enough water to fill my 2 10 litre drums but as I only have a 4 ltr saucepan thought this might be a bit of a PITA as I have to wait for it to cool before adding to the plastic drums & then chilling... this could take all day just to have enough clean water for a brew.

I have a couple of mates who only use tap water & their brews have always been fine & infection free,& quite tasty too.. I was thinking of just giving my water drums a wash & sanitize & just filling with plain tap water a day or 2 before I brew & chilling.. Would make things a lot easier than boiling & cheaper than buying it

I'm on the Gold Coast.Does anyone else out there just use tap water without any dramas. I just wanted some feedback before I try it as I dont want to stuff up a brew!!

 

[mika]

For kits it doesn't seem to be much of a drama. I'd generally go by the rule of thumb, if you like the taste of your water, then you're probably OK to brew with it.
If the chlorine is an issue, you can do as I do. Take an old fermenter (or a new one, whatever) take a bunnings 90c plastic bucket. Buy a 3-pack of your regular jug style water filters. Cut three holes in the bottom of the plastic bucket, slightly smaller than the diameter of the filter cartridges. They're generally tapered, so seal up on the hole reasonably well. Throw the bucket in top of the fermenter, make sure there's an air-gap around (otherwise when you open the tap on the fermenter the suction pulls the water thru the filter faster than you reall want). And you now have one big mutha jug filter for filtering your water. Shake the filters thoroughly, once you're done, so they're reasonably dry when put away. Run a few litres thru them and chuck it, when you use them again. Throw them out when you get worried about it, or can taste the chlorine again.

 

[manticle]

I use tap water. Generally I've been boiling it which apparently gets rid of any chlorine but the main reason I boil is so I can cool it in the fridge to drop temp of the wort. Very recent partials have been at a volume high enough not to require additional water though.

I live in Melbourne so water is reasonably good (supposedly soft and a simialr mineral content to Pilsen).

Essentially, I think you could use tap. If it tastes weird, boil and cool some. If it still tastes weird go back to what you were doing

 

[smollocks]

I'd say most people use tap water. With kits I've only ever used unboiled tap water and it's been fine.

 

[drtomc]

I'd say most people use tap water. With kits I've only ever used unboiled tap water and it's been fine.

+1

 

[Phoney]

another one for tap water here..

Mind you im in Sydney, the last time I drank gold coast water it tasted kinda muddy. Has it changed now that the dams are full?

 

[Nick JD]

A simple tank placed under a down-pipe will give you hundreds of liters of rainwater ... and to be honest, I think settled out birdshit is the secret to TASTY beer. Works for me.

I'm on the Goldy hinterland on tank water. Yeast can handle small amounts of chlorine ... but it can't make them happy. Birdshit is full of wonderful salts! And lead nailheads provide a wonderful contrast to an nasty IBU.

At the moment my gutters are so full of red gum leaves that my beer tastes like Vicks (the cough remedy, not the revolting beer).