Ways to purify and sterilise water

[maclarkson]

Hi all,

I was hopping to make a new brew and was wondering if there was any other method of sterilising the water other than to have to boil it for hours. Could I use bottled water or use a reverse osmosis filter setup for instance or anything else?

Thank all

 

[manticle]

By sterilising, what do you mean exactly? What are you trying to remove?

 

[dr K]

Interesting point and one that goes back to the middle ages.
Why would you want to boil drinking water for hours, perhaps you want to concentrate it..

 

[Dae Tripper]

Well just boiling water doesn't make it sterile. Way to do this would be boiling under pressure just like an autoclave. But hey you will have most bugs beat at 10 min.

 

[RobinW]

I found that in Brisbane and prolly in most big cities they use chlorimine in the water not chlorine.
Campdon tablets will kill it but that's adding chemicals to chemicals. You can not boil it out easily.
It's a chlorine/ammonia compound. Nasty stuff.

I've yet to get one grain brew under my belt but I'm getting there.

I'm making RO water and using it in my fresh wort brews

My local brew shop gave me the numbers for beer smith..

I believe water is the key.

 

[RobinW]

Ohh...... Got a 4 stage RO filter from ebay in Brisbane for under $140
Makes 15 litres in about 2 hours,

 

[maclarkson]

So are you guys who are using RO getting a better brew?

 

[maclarkson]

I found that in Brisbane and prolly in most big cities they use chlorimide in the water not chlorine.
Campdon tablets will kill it but that's adding chemicalsto chemicals. You can not boil it out.
It's a chlorine/ammonia compound. Nasty stuff.

I've yet to get one grain brew under my belt but I'm getting there.

I'm making RO water and using it in my fresh wort brews

My local brew shop gave me the numbers for beer smith..

I believe water is the key.

I was just reading up about choline in water apparently it’s chloramine rather chloramide. Chloromine unlike chlorine apparently can take up to 18.hours of boiling to get rid of it from a 21ltr batch. For clorimine reduction the cam den tablets can remove this but you have to make sure that you use the potassium types, apparently much better for a brew.

 

[MHB]

You need to know what is in your water and what it needs to make it better for brewing.
A RO unit if it is well looked after (many aren't) will give you a pretty blank slate, you would be wanting to add some salts especially Calcium as 50-100ppm of Ca is regarded as a minimum.
My local water is good (they mostly use Chlorine rather than Chloramine), if anything a bit light on for most minerals, for some styles I use a two stage filter (particulate then carbon) followed by UV steriliser if it's necessary. For yeast I use Pureau water from woolies, its about as 'pure' as you can get.
If you just want to get rid of Chlorine/Chloramine I would use Potassium/Sodium Metabisulphite (Campden tablets), would only be bothered boiling if there was a lot of Bicarbonate in my water... do what is necessary to improve the water I have.

There are several threads on local water analysis one called "big thread on water around Australia" or something like that, look at your local water analysis there if you can, or on your local water authority website, work out what you are trying to achieve and go from there.
Mark

 

[Rocker1986]

I have a water still that I use for distilling water for pilsners to get it really soft but I don't bother with other styles. I don't know if distilling removes chloramine so just a pinch of potassium metabisulphite goes in to remove it in the distilled water and normal tap water. I have campden tablets too but I find them a ***** to dissolve so I switched to the powdered version.

 

[wynnum1]

vitamin c is also used .

 

[Adr_0]

vitamin c is also used .

Ascorbic acid is my choice.

In response to the original post, having chloramine in your reticulated water basically makes sure that there are no nasties picked up after it leaves the treatment plants.

So for health reasons, at least in terms of faecal coliforms or microbes, chlorine is good. But you absolutely must remove it before mashing otherwise your beer will have a horrible bite and smell to it - which you probably won't notice until it's pointed out to you.

I use ascorbic acid because it's basically instantly dissolved unlike a Campden tablet (which takes another step to crush - they are quite hard).

For each litre and each ppm of chloramine or chlorine you should add 4mg ascorbic acid. So for me, 2-3ppm and 30L requires about 300-400mg ascorbic acid. Sodium met requires a similar amount.

 

[Rocker1986]

I can't say I've noticed any change to the flavor of my beers since I started using potassium met in the water, but I figure it's better to prevent the possibility in the first place.

 

[earle]

Ascorbic acid is my choice.

In response to the original post, having chloramine in your reticulated water basically makes sure that there are no nasties picked up after it leaves the treatment plants.

So for health reasons, at least in terms of faecal coliforms or microbes, chlorine is good. But you absolutely must remove it before mashing otherwise your beer will have a horrible bite and smell to it - which you probably won't notice until it's pointed out to you.

I use ascorbic acid because it's basically instantly dissolved unlike a Campden tablet (which takes another step to crush - they are quite hard).

For each litre and each ppm of chloramine or chlorine you should add 4mg ascorbic acid. So for me, 2-3ppm and 30L requires about 300-400mg ascorbic acid. Sodium met requires a similar amount.

Good for scurvy too. Just another good reason to drink beer.

 

[Adr_0]

I can't say I've noticed any change to the flavor of my beers since I started using potassium met in the water, but I figure it's better to prevent the possibility in the first place.

The dose of chlorine/chloramine can vary week to week based on community water usage and ambient temperature, where you actually get your water, and the beers you make.

It may go undetected for a while but then the holes in the cheese line up and you pick it up. It's also possible that you're not familiar with the exact smell/flavour/mouthfeel and may miss it being there.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yeah, whatever the case I certainly didn't notice any problems in the few years I brewed without removing the chloramine. Either way it doesn't get much simpler than giving the water a bit of a stir and dropping a pinch of powder in to remove it and prevent the potential, so I do it on every batch. I find the powdered potassium met dissolves almost instantly as well.

 

[Meddo]

I have a water still that I use for distilling water for pilsners to get it really soft but I don't bother with other styles. I don't know if distilling removes chloramine so just a pinch of potassium metabisulphite goes in to remove it in the distilled water and normal tap water. I have campden tablets too but I find them a ***** to dissolve so I switched to the powdered version.

Put it in a ziplock bag and give it a tickle with the flat side of a meat mallet

(or just use the powdered stuff...)

 

[JDW81]

Good for scurvy too. Just another good reason to drink beer.

I'm sorry to inform you that the ascorbic acid won't make it into the final product. Like most vitamins, it is highly heat sensitive and will be degraded by the boil.

 

[earle]

I'm sorry to inform you that the ascorbic acid won't make it into the final product. Like most vitamins, it is highly heat sensitive and will be degraded by the boil.

Sssshhhh. Let's not let fact get in the way of a good reason to drink beer.

 

[manticle]

I still don't get what OP is aiming to achieve so advice is going to be a guess at best.

Sterilise? Distil? Purify? Remove bacteria/microflora, remove heavy metals/unwanted mineral content, remove chlorine/ammonia?

All of these have different approaches/solutions.