Using Bottled water in mash

[branlovesbeer]

If I use Wal-mart brand gallon jugs of drinking water, how much pH manipulation do you think I will have to make?
The drinking water is infused with natural minerals to give it a normal taste.


If I use Distilled water, would this make a huge difference from the "Drinking Water"?


Thanks

[BrewDog]

Yes, distilled water has zero mineral content. Your beer will really taste dull, and the yeast won't do a very good job on it.

I have no idea how much mineral content there is in those commercial bottled waters. Can you write to them and ask for a water report?

HTH-

[Mill Rat]

As has been said many times recently on this site, bottled water is a ripoff for about 3/4 of the country. If you drink your municipal tap water, you can most often brew with it too. The municipal water systems have to meet FAR stricter standards and testing regimens than the bottled water scam artists do (yeah, I've got an axe and know how to grind it). Muni water operators are usually more than happy to give you all sorts of data about the mineral content of their water, just call them up.

If you have well water, you should already have a water report with the stuff you need to know. If you don't you damn well ought to get one. Know what you're dumping into your body. AFA what's in the Sprawl-Mart water, my guess would be that's it's the same as what's in the water of one of your nearby large cities that has a good municipal water system.

[branlovesbeer]

Okay. Thanks

So I assume that using the standard tap water should be good?

Is that what most people here use?

Thanks

[Mill Rat]

Muni water will be absolutely safe to consume, except in extraordinarily rare situations where a massive line break or loooong power failure has occurred (and when that happens there'll be announcements about a boil advisory or order). That does not say that everywhere has good brewing water. There are a few places, such as West Texas, where the water is safe, but taste-wise is unappealing.

That said, many of the different styles of beer, such as London's Pale Ale, Plsen's Pilsener, Dublin's stout, and Munchen's lagers to name but a very few, have evolved in response the variations in the local brewing ingredients, which include the water. It not so much a process of brewers trying to make a certain style as it was a process of trying to make the best-tasting beer they could with ingredients (including the water) locally available. When brewing certain styles, it is quite helpful to add certain minerals, such as gypsum, chalk, calcium chloride, etc., to match the water chemistry that inspired that style to begin with. Some beers require very soft water, such as pilseners, and you may find yourself diluting your tap with distilled to lower the mineral concentrations.

You can't get to where you want to be until you know where you are. Find out what your water chemistry is and go from there.

[S.F.B.]

Originally posted by branlovesbeer
Okay. Thanks

So I assume that using the standard tap water should be good?

Is that what most people here use?

Thanks

I use the local tap. I do run it through a filter. Where I am at has a pretty decent mineral content. I will use gypsum and Burton salts.

[BrewDog]

Originally posted by S.F.B.
I use the local tap. I do run it through a filter. Where I am at has a pretty decent mineral content. I will use gypsum and Burton salts.

I do the same thing.

[deucedaily]

My next evolution in brewing is starting to concentrate on the water more. I have been using spring water (grocery store brand or deer park). My water is safe, but I don't like the taste coming out of the tap, so I feel I shouldn't put it in my beer. I recently went to the deer park website for a report, and it appears that they get water from many different sources, so the ranges for the mineral counts I was looking for was all over the place.

Currently at home I have a cartridge filter that is connected to the faucet which we get drinking water from. If I use that with the water report of the city, what can I expect to have to modify? e.g. what will the filter remove that I may want? I just got my ph strips in 2 days after brew day, so I'll have to wait until the next batch to at least baseline the water. Just trying to us a bit more mathematical approach before I get started.

[roadhouse]

I just found out my water pH here is 9.2 on average. How does this affect the brewing water? I've brewed many batches and all have tasted good but it makes me wonder what it would be like if the pH was different. How would i go about changing it anyway?

[deucedaily]

I would start here for an intro for water:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15.html

Also if you have "Designing Great Beers" there is a section on water worth checking out.