Reverse Osmosis

[tbert33]

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone uses or knows anything about using water thats been ran through a reverse osmosis filter.

Im getting one in a few weeks time for my fish keeping needs but im also thinking about using the water that it produces in my brewing. As the RO process is supposed to strip water of all impurities im thinking it will benefit my brews.

Does anyone else do this? if so what have you found the results to be?

 

[Jeltz]

You would probably want at least some minerals in your water as they are needed for fermentation I believe. I have one (marine tank) and usually use about 1 third tap water to 2 thirds RO for my beer and its tastes lovely!

 

[GeorgeSalt]

RO should be ok, but I'd avoid using RO/DI. And most reefers and Discus keepers I know use a DI stage as well.

I used to run a nano reef, and know just enough chemistry to persuade me that DI water is too "hungry" as a solvent to risk using for anything invloving consuming it - never let it near metal, never use it for the laundry iron, never use it for a model steam boiler, etc.

 

[mabrungard]

RO is not completely devoid of ions. Its very very low in ions. You would be wise to add calcium and other ions to give the wort some nutrients. If your tap water is otherwise pleasant tasting, you may find that blending portions of RO and tap water will be beneficial to brewing. If you know what your tap water ionic content is, you'll be able to figure out your blending and the ending concentrations using Bru'n Water.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Much depends on the quality of your water supply. I had mine analysed and since then I never drink it neat, filter it before using it for tea and cooking and use additives to the washing machine. It's not even much good for watering the garden as the plants don't seem to like it either. When it was proposed to sell off the water authorities in the UK, there were no takers until the government drastically reduced the required standard of water quality.
Pure wine and cider are made from fresh fruit alone. In some regions, irrigation is forbidden. Having said that, I do use plain tap water when making kits from concentrates, because the processes of fermentation, fining, filtering and maturing completely transform it.
By all means, process the water but do a similar batch with tap water and compare the results.
It is worth noting that prestigious French wine producers are now buying up chalklands in Kent for the production of sparkling wine. They value the limestone effect.
As for fish, I have a fishpond which has to be topped up with mains water as there is no natural supply. I was concerned about the build up of limestone, but as it is plant rich, which tends towards acidity as the plants decay, I have had no complaints from the fish which continue to grow and breed beyond a theoretically sustainable population to the point where I am now philosophical about the occasional visit from the heron, rather than paranoid!

 

[GeorgeSalt]

RO is not completely devoid of ions. Its very very low in ions.

There I was.. positive I'd distinguished between RO and RO/DI.. ..

 

[tbert33]

Thanks for the responses guys. Ill save the hassle and ill just use tap water :):):)

 

[wezil]

I used to run a nano reef, and know just enough chemistry to persuade me that DI water is too "hungry" as a solvent to risk using for anything invloving consuming it - never let it near metal, never use it for the laundry iron, never use it for a model steam boiler, etc.

Can I ask why? you can use distiled water in all of these things and thats purer than ro/di water. Both of these remove various ions that cause pollution, such as iron,calcium,heavy metals and many more. I've never heard of it described as being too hungry as a solvent. Water is THE universal solvent as well as being a carrier of other substances. However like in reef keeping you might have to add minerals etc to brew with. It. Might work well with some of these additives to make your water like a great brewing area, such as Burton on Trent

 

[GeorgeSalt]

I used to run a nano reef, and know just enough chemistry to persuade me that DI water is too "hungry" as a solvent to risk using for anything invloving consuming it - never let it near metal, never use it for the laundry iron, never use it for a model steam boiler, etc.

Can I ask why? you can use distiled water in all of these things and thats purer than ro/di water. Both of these remove various ions that cause pollution, such as iron,calcium,heavy metals and many more. I've never heard of it described as being too hungry as a solvent. Water is THE universal solvent as well as being a carrier of other substances. However like in reef keeping you might have to add minerals etc to brew with. It. Might work well with some of these additives to make your water like a great brewing area, such as Burton on Trent

Copper corrosion by deionised water is extremely well documented along with other metals (including some not normally considered soluble in tapwater), hence avoiding its use in a launrdy iron or model steam boiler. Use preboiled or filtered rainwater for those applications.

You may decide differently, but I wouldn't drink RO/DI or use it for any other purpose where it wasn't remineralised before use and where every step prior to remineralisation is carefully considered for the potential of uncontrolled contamination (no metal fittings, food-grade plastic or laboratory grade glassware only). I would not regard it as the simple option, or even the cheap option once you consider the typical 1:4 good:waste ratio and the cost of the filters. Given that cheap bottled water from the supermarket is essentially ready-to-go remineralised RO/DI tapwater, the economy of scale where RO/DI would be cost effective for brewing is going to be quite a high monthly consumption of brewing water.

 

[elslow]

Id say Ro is more pure than di, purely for the fact that the Ro water machine in work is fed by the di water machine, ie. Mains>di>Ro.

 

[GeorgeSalt]

Id say Ro is more pure than di, purely for the fact that the Ro water machine in work is fed by the di water machine, ie. Mains>di>Ro.

Someone's got it plumbed wrong.. the DI stage should be after the RO stage, a typical four stage system will go:

Sediment filter -> Carbon filter -> RO membrane -> DI resin

Putting you DI before your RO will just wear out your DI resin quicker by exposing it to more crap, and your waste comes off the RO membrane so you'd be running through the DI stage four or five times more water than you need to (because you're losing 60-80% to waste off the RO stage).

 

[RobWalker]

i wonder if it would be useful for beers that require soft water - stouts etc - i know we use it at the place I work because the soft drinks taste the same throughout the country then. maybe you could ferment with reverse osmosis water treated with the main home brewing water chemicals (i'm not sure what they are) measured to taste like what you are brewing...

but then, it's easy enough to alter your own water too.

 

[elslow]

I don't know tbh. It's a lab water supply machine. Maybe what we refer to as di isn't really di. Or maybe it's a higher grade Ro. Either way it's used for analysis so I think it has to be very pure.

But in terms of creating recipes, using Ro water would make water chemistry adjustments easy as it would be the same quantities for everyone and not dependent on your mains quality and mineral content.

 

[Onionman]

I used to run a nano reef, and know just enough chemistry to persuade me that DI water is too "hungry" as a solvent to risk using for anything invloving consuming it - never let it near metal, never use it for the laundry iron, never use it for a model steam boiler, etc.

Can I ask why? you can use distiled water in all of these things and thats purer than ro/di water. Both of these remove various ions that cause pollution, such as iron,calcium,heavy metals and many more. I've never heard of it described as being too hungry as a solvent. Water is THE universal solvent as well as being a carrier of other substances. However like in reef keeping you might have to add minerals etc to brew with. It. Might work well with some of these additives to make your water like a great brewing area, such as Burton on Trent

Copper corrosion by deionised water is extremely well documented along with other metals (including some not normally considered soluble in tapwater), hence avoiding its use in a launrdy iron or model steam boiler. Use preboiled or filtered rainwater for those applications.

You may decide differently, but I wouldn't drink RO/DI or use it for any other purpose where it wasn't remineralised before use and where every step prior to remineralisation is carefully considered for the potential of uncontrolled contamination (no metal fittings, food-grade plastic or laboratory grade glassware only). I would not regard it as the simple option, or even the cheap option once you consider the typical 1:4 good:waste ratio and the cost of the filters. Given that cheap bottled water from the supermarket is essentially ready-to-go remineralised RO/DI tapwater, the economy of scale where RO/DI would be cost effective for brewing is going to be quite a high monthly consumption of brewing water.

I work with DI water daily. There is a great deal of misinformation about.

Deionised water is indeed a solvent but, while it's corrosive to copper, it isn't harmful to an iron which isn't made of copper. (DI water contains dissolved CO2 so is actually carbonic acid - this reacts with copper to form copper carbonate). Steam boilers are often copper, so they are different from irons. Many irons have instructions that specifically state that deionised water should be used. If they do, then use it.

Cheap bottled water from supermarkets is not remineralised RO/DI tapwater. Most cheap bottled water from supermarkets is bottled tap water. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... mains.html

All that said, just use tap water for brewing.

Vin

 

[GeorgeSalt]

Cheap bottled water from supermarkets is not remineralised RO/DI tapwater. Most cheap bottled water from supermarkets is bottled tap water. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... mains.html

All that said, just use tap water for brewing.

Vin

I agree with you that tapwater is plenty good enough for brewing.

Dasani was definitely remineralised RO from tapwater (but not cheap), which makes me wonder how complex the "complex filtration" used by Tesco really is? I must admit that for quite a while I used the cheap Tesco stuff instead of RO/DI for the reef tank I had. It worked out cheaper than buying RO from my LFS until I bought an RO/DI kit. Water quality was spot on.

The boiler in the iron is now probably plastic, but I'll stick with preboiled from the kettle for that and filtered rainwater for the Mamod/Regner.