Water

[BignJames]

I've used bottled water in my first 2 batches...partial boil. I have a well...does anyone here use their well water? Without boiling? I'm thinking of using my water for my next batch...I've been drinking it for 20 years.

[Grog]

The thinking is if it's good for drinking, it's good for brewing. If you progress to all grain you might want a water analysis done, so you know your mineral content, but that's further down the line.

[zoom6zoom]

One of my buddies uses his well water, no problems. As has been said, of course, it's a good idea to have your well water tested every so often, especially if your neighbors fertilize heavily or you live near a fuel storage site.

[SoxyinMO]

Originally posted by zoom6zoom
One of my buddies uses his well water, no problems. As has been said, of course, it's a good idea to have your well water tested every so often, especially if your neighbors fertilize heavily or you live near a fuel storage site.

We use our well water & it's great; like grog said : if you can drink it, you can brew with it.

[BignJames]

Thanks for the replies....I've got an American Brown to brew Tuesday...well water it shall be!

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by zoom6zoom
.....especially if your neighbors fertilize heavily or you live near a fuel storage site.

Contaminated water is what I do for a living. If you live near a site with fuel tanks, underground tanks in particular, you need to be concerned if you are within 1/4 mile. 1/2 mile if it is a big place that moves a large volume of fuel. And there are consideration beyond that.

[Vienna Lager]

I use well water and it produces some nice beer ales/lagers though had to bring sparge water PH down a bit to about 5.5 but otherwise well water is fine.

[BignJames]

I live at the hub of the universe....it's at least 15 miles to anywhere.

[jgotsch]

I wouldn't think there would be any problems using well water in the boil. But if you are doing a partial boil, I'd probably preboil any well water you are adding to your cooled wort. The well water may have organisms in it that don't bother you but *could* bother your wort. Just my $.02.

[Mill Rat]

If you continue in this hobby/obsession (the fact that you're here posting means the odds are stacked against your recovery...) you will eventually test your water. You may as well get it over with. It'll also give you a baseline for comparison if you detect a change in you water or brew and can't blame it on some other cause. jgotsch has a good point about that boiling. If it ain't boiled or sanitized, it doesn't touch my wort. If by accident something does, I'm worrying about it until I see the bottom of the last bottle.

[Mad Scientist]

If it ain't boiled or sanitized, it doesn't touch my wort

Agreed 100%. I said the same thing in another post earlier today.

[rítzl]

Mill Rat and Bourne,

Have you had problems using water unboiled from the tap, or is that just the way you've always done it?

I've made around ten batches over two years...mostly haphazardly playing with recipes and techniques, and I've used tap water every time. So far I haven't had an infected batch (I'm really anal about sanitation otherwise).

Our water is so heavily chlorinated that you can clearly smell it when taking a hot shower...I wonder how much that has to do with it.

What all can testing my water tell me?

[Mill Rat]

Your main interest will be in the mineral content, since you say it is heavily chlorinated. Some styles of beer benefit from certain minerals, and often the recipes will tel you to add certain minerals. For example, the water used to brew Bass Ale has plenty of carbonate. If you're looking to make an English ale in that style, you'll want to have similar carbonate levels. You might already have them, and don't have to add. Conversly, if you want to make a Bohemian pils, which starts with very soft water, would not benefit from your native water, and you would consider using bottled water in that case. If you have very soft water, you have a fairly blank slate and you know you can then "draw" what you want.

It helps to keep in mind that these regional styles evolved, at least in part, to produce the best beer possible with the water to which they had access. Adjusting our water to brew the style we want is a fairly recent innovation in brewing.

You note that you consider your water heavily chlorinated. Please consider that this is done to disinfect the water, and from the water plant's standpoint, your precious brewing yeast is an infection. you may want to boil your tap water to remove this chlorine to help your yeast survive and thrive.

[Mad Scientist]

You'll want to figure out if they use chlorine or chloramine. There is a difference, and most municipalities use chloramine as it stays longer in water, and disinfects better. The problem is the chloramine cannot be removed by boiling, you'd have to use a carbon filter or campden tablets. Me, I say go to the store and boil bottled water for your top up.

When I extract brewed, I did use tap water from time to time, but only in a pinch. With all grain brewing, I do not top up, as what ever I have at the end of the boil is what gets feremnted. But with exception of my fist couple of all grain batches (until I knew how much to sparge, and where to adjust the propane, etc) , I have never boiled below five gallons.

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
You'll want to figure out if they use chlorine or chloramine.

Good point, Boerne.

A number of years ago (before I began HBing) I installed a charcoal filter upstream of my kitchen sink cold water tap and my refrigerator ice maker, which draws water from ahead of the softener. I guess I've never much worried about Cl vs. chloramine because I didn't have to.