Treating water for kits...quick answer please!

[Tommo 2]

Technically Harris Pure Brew is nutrient and vitamins for fermentation. Which is all Clint needs.

But it isn't really water treatment. Lincolnshire "rock hard" won't be changed by this addition. For that you would need about 15ml of AMS ( mashing not kits )

If you take a look,I think you’ll find that it does contain a water treatment plus as you say nutrient and vitamins

 

[MashBag]

If you take a look,I think you’ll find that it does contain a water treatment plus as you say nutrient and vitamins

Not really. I think you may only add to the complexity of water treatment with that view. This is a nutrition addition that reacts with the water (obvs) to assist fermentation.

Water treatment is typically much sooner than that... Mashing.

INGREDIENTS....
Yeast Hulls (yeast cell food)
Zinc (nutrient for fermentation)
Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom salt - calcium for yeast)
Di-ammonium Phos (nutrient)
Vitamin C
Vitamin B1
Calcium Pantothenate ( B5 vitamin)
Folic Acid ( B5 vitamin)
Niacin ( B5 vitamin)

A better term might be fermentation aid /nutrition additive. Similar to Fermaid™ products produced by Lallemand.

It isn't really water treatment to build a water style. Certainly Lincolnshire "rock hard" won't be changed by this addition. For that you would need about 15ml of AMS ( mashing not kits )

But each to there own, of course.

 

[Appleton Brews]

Clint
All these long answers all you need for kits are Campden tablets.

 

[Dark Arts]

Clint
I'm still doing kits along with the AG,

For the kits
Campdon tablet for the cold water you'll be adding to the kit.
Swap out the kit yeast for 1 you like or know.
Mix the dry dme in the bottom of your fermentation bucket etc with boiled water and mix till the clumps have gone, pore the LME from the tin into this add more hot water to rince tin out, mix well, add cold water upto where kit says(should be in yeast pitching temp after this) pitch yeast.

The only other thing I do is adjust for the chloride sulphate ratio and I usually add 5g of calcium chloride to ballance the ratio

 

[Bitter_Dave]

As I understand it, if you are brewing a kit you only need to use Camden tablets if you have noticeable levels of chlorine (or equivalent). I don't, so I don't use them. Issue about very hard water is different, and I don't know what the answer is to that one, but I would not be surprised if it had some kind of effect on the end product.

 

[Clint]

I'm quite good at mixing up kits ....I've done probably about 100...but as said never,ever treated the water,not even Campden tab.
I do treat my AG water. One of the main reported reason for homebrew off tastes is water or rather the chlorine or whatever is in it to start. So my initial starting point was to at least remove chlorine which then got me thinking of adding my usual salts and acid as I do mash and full water (sparge) treatment when brewing AG.
We'll soon find out. As long as it doesn't poison me it won't be wasted.

 

[Begbie]

My tuppence worth...

I've returned to kit brewing to supplement my stocks between the rare AG brew days. When I first started brewing kits, before I jumped to AG, I did find that some had that 'twang'. These days however, they don't, which could be because I now simply add Campden tablets to the cold 'top up' water, which i didn't do previously. Maybe that's just luck, improved brewing techniques/equipment, or type of kits that I now brew, but it appears to be working.

In the past year, I've done two Premium Lager kits from The Range and a Muntons Connoisseurs Bock. No twang, and they have been a roaring success with friends and family. It is worth noting though, that my tap water is soft, and I use LME (Coopers Light) instead of DME, sugar or beer enhancer, and I've been swapping out the supplied yeast with my own preference.

So, roughly half a campden tablet to my cold top up water. No treatment to my boiled water.

 

[Bitter_Dave]

Kits presumably contain the minerals that were used to produce them, so I guess you ideally want fairly low mineral content water. I think I read that somewhere with regard to extract brewing. Whether that makes any difference in practice I have no idea.

 

[Dark Arts]

I've defo noticed a difference in my kits when I started using campdon tablets, swapping out the kit yeast and had some level of temp control, I use calcium chloride to improve the month feel in my stouts n porters.

 

[Its 6pm somewhere]

If the necessary minerals were added during production is using tap water not the equivalent of adjusting your mash water for AG and then sparging with mineral laden tap water which will just make any adjustments you made earlier in the process pointless and give you an entirely new water profile? Would RO water adjusted in a general way to the given style be an option to give kits a leg up?

 

[MashBag]

Why the fascination with campden tablets?

 

[Begbie]

Why the fascination with campden

It's not a 'fascination', it's a generally accepted method which seems to help improve the taste of the brew by removing chloride. You could leave your water overnight to evaporate the chloride naturally, but I'm not usually that organised.

Assuming you don't use campden tablets, maybe your beers are fine, but I've certainly noticed a difference and will therefore continue to add them.

 

[MashBag]

I do think it depends on what is in them.
I might agree if they are potassium metabisulphite.
But often some are sodium metabisulphite.

Always considered them a solution to a problem. No problem no need.

 

[Tommo 2]

Not really. I think you may only add to the complexity of water treatment with that view. This is a nutrition addition that reacts with the water (obvs) to assist fermentation.

Water treatment is typically much sooner than that... Mashing.

INGREDIENTS....
Yeast Hulls (yeast cell food)
Zinc (nutrient for fermentation)
Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom salt - calcium for yeast)
Di-ammonium Phos (nutrient)
Vitamin C
Vitamin B1
Calcium Pantothenate ( B5 vitamin)
Folic Acid ( B5 vitamin)
Niacin ( B5 vitamin)

A better term might be fermentation aid /nutrition additive. Similar to Fermaid™ products produced by Lallemand.

It isn't really water treatment to build a water style. Certainly Lincolnshire "rock hard" won't be changed by this addition. For that you would need about 15ml of AMS ( mashing not kits )

But each to there own, of course.

Well you obviously haven’t looked in to pure brew as it does contain ingredients to combat the chlorine and chloramine in your water as well as yeast nutrient, I get the hard water thing and realise that pure brew won’t change this, but pure brew does get that home brew twang gone .

 

[MashBag]

I think all the ingredients are not publicly listed.
Nothing I listed above (sourced from dark rock) treats chlorine/Chloramine.

There is something else.

Pleased you found what works for you. Whatever is in it

If anyone does know.. Shout up!

 

[Tommo 2]

I think all the ingredients are not publicly listed.
Nothing I listed above (sourced from dark rock) treats chlorine/Chloramine.

There is something else.

Pleased you found what works for you. Whatever is in it

If anyone does know.. Shout up!

Go over to there site,search pure brew and everything is revealed, ingredients and what those ingredients actually do,Guess you couldn’t be bothered

 

[Appleton Brews]

We’re at 36 messages to give Clint a quick answer for kit beer for god sake.

 

[Clint]

Right bunch of slow coaches.

 

[MashBag]

Go over to there site,search pure brew and everything is revealed, ingredients and what those ingredients actually do,Guess you couldn’t be bothered

Gently tiger, you sound like you need a beer

 

[Tommo 2]

Gently tiger, you sound like you need a beer

Your right there and it will have no home brew twang because I’ve used pure brew