Filling the FV with tap water

[The Goatreich]

Just about to start my second brew off while the first conditions, and I've realised that whilst everything in painstakingly sterilised throughout the whole process, when filling the FV on the first brew I just used regular tap water. Should I be treating the water in anyway first to get the best results?

 

[WelshPaul]

You need to at least use a campden tablet to remove choloramine which can taint the finished product; chlorine will evaporate on its own in the boil.
Also, depending on where you live, you may need to treat teh water to reduce calcium hardness and any other unwanted hard water minerals. You should be able to find the water board's report for your area online, or at least request it. Once you have these figures, there are a number of calculators, some on this forum, that you can use to work out how much water treatment you need. It's not strictly necessary but can help.

 

[WelshPaul]

also, Murphy Home Brew do a water analysis service if you want to be a bit more precise. I can't speak for its results but I'm sure someone here can:

http://www.murphyhomebrew.com/shop/arti ... id%3D17%26

 

[The Goatreich]

Excellent, thanks. I posted before I found the topic in the How-To guides, so apologies for that.

I'll pick up some camden tablets when I buy my next kit, and also ask the people in the local homebrew shop whether they'd recommend treating the water for hardness.

Thanks again.

 

[Aleman]

If you are making beer from a kit there is no need to treat for hardness, just remove chlorine using a campden tablet.

In an ideal world you would boil all water used in the kit (and allow it to cool), but if you are going to boil 23L for a kit you may as well go all grain So Tap water is 'acceptable'

 

[The Goatreich]

One day I will go all grain, but until then kits will suffice.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[klaus]

I live in a hard water area (Chilterns) and of course the water is chlorinated, but I have never done anything about the water, ok I only do kits & wow so perhaps not too critical. Maybe my taste buds are not that good (used to be a smoker years ago).....

 

[shearclass]

One day I will go all grain, but until then kits will suffice.

me too


I have never used a campden tablet in my water, and I've never noticed any chlorine taste. Perhaps I am lucky with my tap water though.

I live in God's allotment of course, so that probably helps.

 

[StrangeBrew]

I always use water from the bathroom cold tap as this comes from the header tank in the loft where the water has sat a few days and any chlorine evaporated off. So no need to use a campden tablet. Kitchen cold tap comes straight off the mains and might need treating.

No need to worry about sanitisation with household water it's already is sanitised otherwise you'd get ill drinking it !


:

 

[eblis]

I filter my water through a Brita filter with water from the tap and it tastes fine, but when making wine a use mineral water.

If you were going to boil 23lts of water it would cost you the same as buying mineral water from the supermarket.

 

[craigite]

I always use water from the bathroom cold tap as this comes from the header tank in the loft where the water has sat a few days and any chlorine evaporated off. So no need to use a campden tablet. Kitchen cold tap comes straight off the mains and might need treating.

No need to worry about sanitisation with household water it's already is sanitised otherwise you'd get ill drinking it !


:

I'd be careful taking from the header tank. chlorine treatment has a limited duration. One of the issues could be what might have crept into your header tank; any mice?
What temp is the water in the header tank? once the chlorine has gone there's nothing to stop some nasty bug.
Suppose it's ok if you boil for long enough to kill all bugs, but if you brew kits a lot of the water is not boiled.
Last, it is recommended that you only drink water from a tap direct from the main, and not from a tap from the header tank.


As for the original question. I have tried treating my water as per all the previous remarks. To be honest I don't notice any difference. Maybe I'm lucky, we do have really good water.

 

[StrangeBrew]

I'd be careful taking from the header tank. chlorine treatment has a limited duration. One of the issues could be what might have crept into your header tank; any mice?
What temp is the water in the header tank? once the chlorine has gone there's nothing to stop some nasty bug.
Suppose it's ok if you boil for long enough to kill all bugs, but if you brew kits a lot of the water is not boiled.
Last, it is recommended that you only drink water from a tap direct from the main, and not from a tap from the header tank.

Some of your reservations might be true if the water from the tank wasn't used regularly but with the usual household use it's never going to get stale up there... Never had a bad batch of beer and the original idea for doing this was a recommendation in a beer kits instructions to use bathroom cold tap water as it stops the chlorine taint in the beer.

 

[Wolverine]

I always use water from the bathroom cold tap as this comes from the header tank in the loft where the water has sat a few days and any chlorine evaporated off. So no need to use a campden tablet. Kitchen cold tap comes straight off the mains and might need treating.

No need to worry about sanitisation with household water it's already is sanitised otherwise you'd get ill drinking it !


:

That's brave

I hope your header tank has the by law 30 kit.

I'm a plumber and have taken out header tanks that are used regular and some of the things I find in them is discusting and alot of people who don't realise and have been drinking from the bathroom tap in the night almost puke when I show them. on a plus note a new plastic header tank with the by law kit will be quite clean and I wouldn't have a problem except for maybe in the summer months when it's warm and legionnaires could be a problem.
I'm running on a combi anyway so I don't have to worry

 

[Phil_MG]

I don't generally like the taste of the water that comes out of my tap. Tastes far too chlorinated to drink straight from the tap so I figured it wouldn't do the taste of the beer much good either. I got a few 5 litre bottles of spring water from Tesco for a quid each (as I'm only brewing a 10 litre kit).

Regarding the campden tablets - Do they dissolve completely, remove all taste of chlorine ect?

 

[Moley]

Thanks Wolverine, definitely a post to make you stop and think. We don't have a header tank either, but my parents' house did / still does and I am sure there must have been plenty of times when I was younger that I drank from the bathroom taps. Is it just gunge and years of accumulated sludge, or what have you found in header tanks?

Our tap water is pretty good, I would almost be happy to drink it neat if I ever had to. A few miles away at my place of employment, theirs is ok when boiled for coffee but I take my own bottled water if I want to make cold drinks.

For winemaking I do use quite a bit of bottled water, sometimes I want the 5 litre PETs and think I may as well use their contents, and I usually keep a few of the 16p 2-litre bottles for topping up etc. For brewing I've only ever used our mains supply, plus a squirt of sulphite solution. I understand from Aleman that many bottled waters might not be suitable for brewing, or at least not for AG brewing.


Quoting from here:

Hardness is not important! Hardness is a measure of the calcium and magnesium ions in the water, unfortunately is is most often combined with bicarbonate (hydrogen carbonate) ions, which does have an effect on brewing.

Water softeners generally remove hardness! That's a problem because calcium and magnesium is required in brewing and replace it with double the amount of sodium, which isn't important . . . in fact it's detrimental.

RO Systems strip the majority of ions out of the water! Which means you have to put them back, either by adding salts to make up your own water, or by diluting your tap water.

Tap water contains chlorine! Which can lead to TCP like flavours in your beer. Remove it with 1/2 a campden tablet in up to 10Gallons while drawing your water.

Waters high in calcium carbonate are great for dark beers! Super for your stouts porters milds and darker bitters, but not so good for your pales and blondes.

Boiling removes carbonate! Easiest way to remove carbonate is to chuck a tsp of gypsum in your water pre brew and boil it for 30 minutes. Leave overnight, then rack of the sediment and use that to brew with.

Asda Smart Price or Tescos Ashbeck water is low in carbonate! And it's cheap enough, buy 30L and use that to brew with adding a tsp of gypsum to the mash and boil. Other mineral waters are not suitable!!