Hot Tap Water

[simonkidder]

Can I use water out of the hot Tap to make up a beer kit? I've not got a storage tank in the attic. Would it be ok to make it up to 5gallons then leave to cool before I pitch the yeast?

Help appreciated

 

[klaus]

Why do you wish to do that?

If you do kits all you need is hot water from the kettle to dissolve the malt extract and then top up with cold water, which brings down the temp for pitching the yeast. Or is this to do with AG, of which I know nothing.

 

[RobWalker]

yeah cold water is fine after dissolving, if not better.

 

[aneray]

Two litres of boiling water from the kettle into a pan. Open up the kit and place it in the pan and bring the water up to a very slow simmer and continue for three or four minutes. Chuck the contents of the can into the fermenting vessel and then fill the can with the boiling water from the pan. Give it a stir to dissolve whats left in the can and add to the vessel with the rest of the water. Top up with cold water to required mark and then add yeast and whatever else supplied. Ferment as usual.

Remember to remove the outer label/instructions before putting can in water

 

[simonkidder]

Sorry don't think I've explained myself properly. The reason for doing this is I usually just buy bottled water from the supermarket. I was wondering if I could get away with using tap water instead without having to boil all 5 gallons of it.

 

[keith1664]

Treat the water with half a campden tablet to remove the chlorine and you should be fine.

 

[RobWalker]

Treat the water with half a campden tablet to remove the chlorine and you should be fine.

this. i've never had an issue with cold tap water! :)

 

[shocker]

But Rob ! Werent you just saying you had TCP flavours in your beer ? A common side effect of chlorinated water ?

sorry mate ! :whistle:

PS I havent been able to find that thing about liquorice for you....yet !

 

[earthwormgaz]

You could fill your hot water tank with malt, it's insulated, throw in some yeast and you'll have beer on tap in the house in a week :lol:

 

[artyb]

i put 3-4 gallons of mains tap water in an fv with a tap on it,
add a crushed camden tablet,
leave for half an hour ,while i do the rest of the kit,

then drop the treated tap water from a height into the fv,
through the tap,onto the kit ingredients[which ive made up to around a gallon] .... :party:

 

[shocker]

Simon ,the OP ...I think I know what you mean ! WE were always told years ago not to drink the hot tap water or use it in the kettle or cooking . I think this was something to do with with the waters interactions with the metal pipework and tanks but I dont really remember clearly - I think it was initially due to lead piping then later lead in solder ,even "lead free" still had some lead in until recently . That and hot water dissolving those nasties more readily .

Anyway ,had a google this morning and found a couple of things ,a bit contadictory but possibly of some interest :

http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-tru ... 0310200.bc

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-h ... nk-co.html

http://peteashton.com/2005/02/heres_a_question/

a bit of a mixed bag and not totally relevant I know !

 

[simonkidder]

I was worried about any nasties in the water messing up my brew. I didn't know you could treat it with a CT. Brilliant!! I'll be on with this tonight then.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

I'm not really sure I follow why you want to use your hot water.

You said you normally buy bottled water, rather than boiling your tap water, this leads me to assume there is something wrong with your tap water, hence why you don't use it at the moment.

Using Hot water is surely only a hot version of your tap water, if your tap water is bad, then all you will have is hot bad tap water, the fact it is hot won't have killed off any nasties, assuming there were some there in the first place, as it won't be hot enough.

The only thing treating with a Campden Tablet does is remove Chlorine and Chloramines from the water, it won't remove any bacteria, but there shouldn't be any in your tap water anyway.

 

[shocker]

You could fill your hot water tank with malt, it's insulated, throw in some yeast and you'll have beer on tap in the house in a week :lol:

now that POSITIVE thinking ! Well done that man ! :clap: :

 

[shocker]

Steve ,campden tablets NOT kill bacteria ? I thought that was one of their main uses ? Or is it that at low concentrations they will do the chlorine thing but not bacteria ?

Please dont think I am questioning YOUR word ,its me that is confused about w3hat I though I knew !

 

[RobWalker]

But Rob ! Werent you just saying you had TCP flavours in your beer ? A common side effect of chlorinated water ?

sorry mate ! :whistle:

PS I havent been able to find that thing about liquorice for you....yet !

no problem, it's gone down the drain. i'm almost certain it was because of not rinsing the sanitizer, so not really a water problem but a chemical problem :p

 

[johnluc]

if your hot water is mains fed ie combi boiler or mains fed pressurised cylinder it is safe to use,if you have a cold water storrage tank in loft feeding a cylinder then don't use all sorts of crap can get in tank.
johnluc.

 

[simonkidder]

I've always been under in impression that tap water was bad and wasn't any good for brewing. So I take it this is wrong

 

[RobWalker]

I've always been under in impression that tap water was bad and wasn't any good for brewing. So I take it this is wrong

you just need to de-chlorinate it really, that's the major issue people suffer - it's sat in pipes under the ground with preservatives whereas spring water goes straight from a natural filtering system into a bottle. it's by no means bad, england has some of the best tap water, especially birmingham, whereas abroad is could be an issue. you need to take water hardness into account too, but it's all easily fixable.

 

[shocker]

I and my father before me never used anything but tap water ,dechlorinated by whatever means .We had both spring and mains at the old place and chose mains as it was more stable there . Used to be that standing and stirring would take the chlorine out ,then boiling was recommended and now it seems the newer method of treating mains with chloramines (is that right ?) means campden tabs are the best way .

The OPs point as I understood was whether the water from the hot tap was usuable ,and thats been answered above to some extent . But I dont think that as long as you take sensible precautions using tap water will be any trouble . Bear in mind much bottled water is just tap water ,albeit sometimes re filtered (which you could do yourself cheaply enough) and much tap water is from acquifers and bores that would be classed as mineral water .