spring water v tap water

[eltei]

Local Aldi doing a deal on spring water, will it really make a difference on my latest brew of Coopers stout brewed short to 20 pints using brewing sugar.

 

[Yeastmaster]

Hi - a lot of people say hard water is fine for dark beers but that you should use softer water for light beers. I've personally always only used (hard) tapwater and the lightest thing I ever did was a coopers wheat beer which turned out great (if a bit bland).

Given that stout is a dark as you'll get I think tapwater (minus chlorine) will be fine.
Is better for the environment too.

Hope that helps.

 

[BruinTuns]

Also worth remembering is that mineral water and hard tap water are full of similar deposits, calcium carbonate for one. The main reasons for brewing with mineral water are that it's free from chloramines and you get to use the bottles to house your brew.
Some people claim they can taste a difference but if hard vs soft vs mineral water was a real issue with kit brews I think there would be a lot more threads about it.

 

[MyQul]

Also keep in mind some beer styles suit (minus the chlorides) hard water. You can 'Burtonize' your water by adding minirals to mimic the water of burton on trent, which is very hard, for IPA's. Porters will of course traditionally have been made from (London) hard water. Irish Stout also (as I understand it, around the Dublin area) are traditionally made with harder water

 

[Cwrw666]

Oh, I thought it was meant to be the other way round - soft (acid) water for stout, hard (alkali) for lager, and bitters ok with both. We have very acid water here and stout comes out well, bitters are ok, and the only times I've ever done lager they were drinkable but didn't taste much like lager.

 

[Yeastmaster]

Lol :-)! Sounds like maybe it doesn't matter and any water (tap or bottled) will do for kit brewing, as long as it doesn't taste horrible.

I'm not an AG brewer (yet) but I understand the situation is slightly different there.

The only easy way to tell for certain would be to buy a two can kit and then brew one can with hard and one can with soft water next to one another at the same time and compare the results.

Has anybody done anything like this?

 

[MyQul]

I think as long as you basically use de-chlorinated water for a kit you'll be fine.

I just mentioned matching your water profile to your beer style as along with much else with home brewing you can get as 'deep' into it as you like. There are whole books written on just the water aspect of home brewing. Some HBers go so far as getting water reports from their suppliers. I understand these to be pretty complex things

 

[Yeastmaster]

Just don't use untreated water from the tap. I did this with my first brew (Thames Water) and it tasted like TCP.

Since then I always treat with 1/2 campden tablet per 20l water. Have been amazed by the difference it makes.

 

[MyQul]

My supplier is Thames water too. I use a brita water jug, which seems to work well

 

[eltei]

You have a very valid point with regards to using spring water for stouts. I did an experiment brewing half with spring and the other ordinary tap water. The result is DON'T USE SPRING WATER FOR STOUT it is undrinkable.........chucked down the sink, only consolation is the other half that is drinkable.

 

[BruinTuns]

In what way undrinkable? Do you mean it was revolting? If so then I doubt that the spring water was the culprit. Differences in taste will be subtle, a water not suited to a brew style may not be ideal but you certainly wouldn't end up with an 'undrinkable' beer.
If it was truly vile then it sounds more like an infection got into the spring water batch.

 

[eltei]

I can only describe the taste as "sickly sweet with vinegary aftertaste", the tap water version I must admit is not up to its usual taste but is at least drinkable. I think you may be right in saying it is due to an infection, but I can't see where I have dropped a clanger. I used the same cleaning/sanitising process and followed everything to ticket, bar short-brewing them and everything has been hunkydory before.

 

[clibit]

I live in Mancland and we have beautiful tap water that's piped from the Lakes, I was shocked when I move to London in the 80s to discover that I couldn't drink the tap water or make a decent cup of tea or coffee. So I make all my beer with tap water, all grain and partial mashes, but I would never make beer with London tap water, unless it's improved, a lot. In other words, if you like drinking your tap water, it will be fine for kit brewing. If you don't, try some cheap mineral waters and use the one you like best.

 

[eltei]

clibit, nobody likes a show-off!...........piped from the Lakes.........you lucky bu99er!

 

[MyQul]

Pah!..piped from the lakes... , I get my brew water brought to me in a golden ewer by a vestal virgin, riding a unicorn

 

[clibit]

It's piped to the whole of Manchester, not just plebs like me. :hat:

 

[MyQul]

... but I would never make beer with London tap water, unless it's improved, a lot. In other words, if you like drinking your tap water, it will be fine for kit brewing. If you don't, try some cheap mineral waters and use the one you like best.

I live in London and fortunately for me, my favourite beer styles, stout and porter are best suited to London hard water. But I agree, I can't drink the tap water without filtering it first

 

[brewpirate]

If you do not have the water report I would go bottle and then modify the water to style or if you are unsure ride the middle road and split half and half.