Proofing Water: Distilled, Filtered or Tap?

[Briar]

Hi All,

This is my first post and the topic may have been covered elsewhere, but I couldn't find a real in-depth discussion of it. My question: What kind of water do you prefer for bringing newmake spirits to proof for barrel aging and then for bottling. I've heard people insist on using only distilled water to avoid any disruption of the established flavor profile of the spirit. Others have said that adding distilled water flattens out the flavor rendering it dull and insipid. They say that filtered, de-ionized or reverse osmosis water is the only way to go since it removes undesirable chemicals and minerals but keeps the body and flavor of local water. Others say all this nitpicking is unnecessary and that you should just draw a bucket of your local tap water, letting it aerate overnight to let the chlorine dissipate, and go for it.

At least aesthetically, I tend to gravitate toward the last option--tap water--because I like the idea of the finished product tasting like the water of its origin. What I'm considering doing is boiling my tap water to really evaporate off the chlorine, let it cool and then cut my newmake to barrel proof. Thoughts? Does anyone know what the traditional Scottish and Kentucky distilleries do?

Regards,
Briar

[heartcut]

Depends. Use your tap water, dechlorinated, and see if it still tastes good. If it doesn't, explore brand name drinking water. Good luck.

[Prairiepiss]

I'm just gona say experiment and find out what works for you. It's not about what I like. It's about what you like. You are making it for you. Not me. Take one batch and split it 3 ways try all three. See what you like. It's that simple.

I can't stand my tap water here. So there is no way I would ever use it for dilution. I have a RO filter with a tap. So that's what I use. Saves me from buying distilled. And it works fine.

If I were to use tap water. I think I would boil it at least. Before I used it. Or anything to get the chlorine out of it. Other the chemicals to remove it. Bla Bla Bla like I said find what works for you. Don't worry about what everyone else thinks. There will always be an argument one way or the other.

[Washashore]

.....ok bigwheel where are you on this one? (btw, I prefer well water)

[Prairiepiss]

.....ok bigwheel where are you on this one? (btw, I prefer well water)

[Glock19Fan]

I would never use tap water for distilled spirits. I think with that all the work I did to ferment and distill, the spirit should be rewarded with the best water.

I personally use Spring Water I buy from any grocery store for less than a dollar a gallon.

[Bearcat]

From what I have read on the subject the minerals / chemicals left over in tap water can /may create a reaction and make your spirit cloudy. RO water is the safest method to dilute your spirit since it has all minerals/chemical removed and you are just adding stripped H20. You can fill up your jugs at the culligan store for $2 for 4 gallons is pretty cheap if you have the container. I searched for it through several threads since I just did it for the 1st time last night and it worked well.

Bearcat

[heartcut]

Careful with DI, RO or distilled water, allh remove minerals from whatever they touch, including your body. You'd have to drink a bunch of spirits to hurt yourself, but keep in mind that those types of water are extremely corrosive and can hurt or kill you in high enough quantities. Drinking/spring water has minerals added to passivate the water.

[Prairiepiss]

Heartcut you and bigwheel would get along great.

[RumBrewer]

Heartcut you and bigwheel would get along great.

Have popcorn and a coke.... ready for this!

[rad14701]

I would never use tap water for distilled spirits. I think with that all the work I did to ferment and distill, the spirit should be rewarded with the best water.

I personally use Spring Water I buy from any grocery store for less than a dollar a gallon.

All that water from the store is is water from someone else's tap... They've covered that on television for years... It often comes from a municipal water supply in the city it is distributed from... I'm only aware of one "spring water" distributor who collects directly from a spring and I'm not even sure the spring could supply 100% of their "spring water"... I'm just sayin...

[heartcut]

BTW, I asked our muni for a water report and received one- I suppose it's that easy in other cities. No fecal matter in the report... Made beer brewing easier.

[Prairiepiss]

I would never use tap water for distilled spirits. I think with that all the work I did to ferment and distill, the spirit should be rewarded with the best water.

I personally use Spring Water I buy from any grocery store for less than a dollar a gallon.

All that water from the store is is water from someone else's tap... They've covered that on television for years... It often comes from a municipal water supply in the city it is distributed from... I'm only aware of one "spring water" distributor who collects directly from a spring and I'm not even sure the spring could supply 100% of their "spring water"... I'm just sayin...

To elaborate on what Rad said. Unless the bottled water crosses a state line. It is not regulated. Meaning it doesn't even have to be filtered. And can be labeled how ever they want. If the product crosses a state line. It has to state what has been done to it. This doesn't count for distilled water. Is it was distilled it must say so. And if it says distilled it must be distilled.

I'm my metro area that spans across a state line. We have a water bottling company as a customer. This company has two facilities one in each state. To cover both sides of the line. And they only use a big sediment filter. The one on my side of the line uses the same water I have at home. And its crap. They label for 6 different companies.

Now on to the filters at your local grocery store. Where you can fill your bottle with so called clean water. Ask the manager when the last time it was serviced. Before you use it. Mine told me he didn't know it needed to be serviced. And he has never seen anyone there to service it. Mmm yummy.

[Prairiepiss]

Would like to add. I have a buddy that works for a major bottling machine company. He flys all over the US to service the equipment. He wont by bottled water. He claims there are only two companys he would by from. And only in certain places. He said the water bottling companies are the worst places he has to go. They don't service and clean their equipment like they should. And it takes him longer to clean them to get them to work right. Then any other companies he services including soda and beer companies.

[heartcut]

This looks like moved and a second on most of the bottled water:
http://www.ewg.org/health/report/bottle ... -scorecard" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Ozarka was my go-to when I was travelling, in the US anyway. Either dumb luck or the hillbillies driving the truck in the TV ads. Going to third world countries I drank whatever bottled was available and almost never needed Lomatil.
The muni water where I live is good, just have to remove the chlorine.

[Prairiepiss]

I was in Africa in the early 90s. They would bring US pallets of bottled water. We would grab a case or two and take them back to the hotel. I'm not sure where they got it from? But they brought in a pallet we grabbed and took them back. Drank it that night. Only to go in the next day to find out they had tested it and found human ficies in it. We bout died when they told US that. From then on we had ozarka brought in from the states. Mid rote one of our planes brought over two aircraft pallets of it from home. We started packing water for most of our trips after that.

[zouthernborne]

The gas station just down the street from my house has a machine outside where you can get a gallon of glacier water for a quarter, if you have a gallon jug. Damned good water. I use it to proof my rums and have had the best results of any store bought water.

[Washashore]

Damn. $.25 for a gallon, you should do an AG mash with that right thar.

[zouthernborne]

Getting ready to. Doing a NCHooch Bourbon with it a week from tomorrow. I'm hoping for some damned good likker from it. I been using tap water for fermentations, but shit knows what's rolling around in the tap water here. So at that price, I think I'll be doing all my ferments with it.

[Briar]

Wow! Thanks everyone for the great feedback to this question! I think that I'm leaning toward simply using tap water, either filtered or pre-boiled just to get chlorine out. When you consider the fact that technologies allowing RO and de-ionized water didn't exist for most of the history of distillation it makes it easier for me to just use good ol' branch water, even if the branch does go through a water treatment plant these days. If it was good enough for our Scottish and Appalachian 'stillin' forebears, its good enough for me!
Thanks again!

[HolyBear]

I baught a Berky filter system. Stainless with carbon filters (cost me nearly 300$) we have power outages here in the mountains an so I thought it'd be good to have around. When I tried the filtered water for the first time to cut my high proof, it turned cloudy!!??!! Well, I should have done some better research hear in HD.. turns out that you need to add the alcohol to water, not water to alcohol....and they need to be same temp....

[baron4406]

I would never use tap water for distilled spirits. I think with that all the work I did to ferment and distill, the spirit should be rewarded with the best water.

I personally use Spring Water I buy from any grocery store for less than a dollar a gallon.

All that water from the store is is water from someone else's tap... They've covered that on television for years... It often comes from a municipal water supply in the city it is distributed from... I'm only aware of one "spring water" distributor who collects directly from a spring and I'm not even sure the spring could supply 100% of their "spring water"... I'm just sayin...

Rad is right the trick is you have to read the label, for instance Culligan water plainly states it comes from a municipal water supply. However my father used to drive a water truck and I witnessed where he got his water for his runs. Right out of a spring! It just goes through a machine that adds ozone to kill bacteria. That brand is Deer Park and I use that it's really the only brand I know for sure that comes from a spring.

[Fritz The Cat]

In my profound ignorance I just have to ask - Why not just fill up the still with tap water and turn the heat up high and make your own purified water?

[zouthernborne]

Ideally, natural water would be best. Natural nutrients, it's a world that yeast love to live in. If you distill the water, you can use it, but it's essentially a sterile environment. It can be used, quite successfully. But most of us just prefer to use water straight from nature. It makes for a better likker.

[kobold]

there is too much crap added to tap water and only chlorine was addressed in this thread. lets look at chloramine and fluoride.
you can't get rid of chloramine by aeration or boiling, you must add some kind of organic matter that can be oxidized by it. people use vitamin c or ascorbic acid, citric acid, lemon juice, sodium bicarbonate, but also things like fulvic or humic acids to neutralize chloramine.
fluoride is extremely poisonous (rat poison) and when ingested will concentrate in the pineal gland. the pineal gland is the control center of all the other hormonal glands of the body (thyroid etc). you can't get rid of fluoride either, not even with RO processing. distilling or collecting rain water is the only way to get (almost) pure h2o.
i am drinking and cooking with distilled water for years w/o any ill effects. it won't deplete your body of minerals as others stated in this thread. think about it: you drink it and it instantly gets mixed with the stuff already in your stomach, saliva etc... recently i started adding 1/2 tsp per gallon of celtic salt for use with my kefir, kombucha and brewing cultures. supplementing with celtic (or pink) salt will also enhance the taste of teas and other beverages.

[RevSpaminator]

If you can get there...

In Olympia, WA, on 4th street, across from McCoy's Tavern, in the middle of a parking lot, there is a brass pipe coming out of the ground. Spilling out of the pipe and flowing into a storm drain is some of the best water you'll ever find. Its come straight from an artesian well and the city redirects it to the the storm drain so it doesn't destroy the foundations of all the buildings in the area.

Best part is the price.. free, you haul.

[baron4406]

Its kinda funny RevSpaminator there is a pipe coming out of the ground by an old barn where I grew up at that was the same story, its there so the underground spring won't wear away the foundation of the barn. Its been a go to water source for about 50 years there and you won't find a purer, better tasting water. The rub? My wife refuses to drink it or any "spring water", she claims all you are drinking is water that birds,deer and other animals pooped in- so its city water for her that's been filtered. Thank god she's blond with big boobs huh?

[RevSpaminator]

That's funny. The spring water goes through a natural filtration process that is better than what the city will ever come up with, unless you live next to an 80 year old chemical waste dump.

[Boilermaker08]

If you can get there...

In Olympia, WA, on 4th street, across from McCoy's Tavern, in the middle of a parking lot, there is a brass pipe coming out of the ground. Spilling out of the pipe and flowing into a storm drain is some of the best water you'll ever find. Its come straight from an artesian well and the city redirects it to the the storm drain so it doesn't destroy the foundations of all the buildings in the area.

Best part is the price.. free, you haul.

I have the same option on the highway between Portland, Or. and the coast there are two taps coming out of the ground, one on each side of the road......

[wockman]

I would never use tap water for distilled spirits. I think with that all the work I did to ferment and distill, the spirit should be rewarded with the best water.

I personally use Spring Water I buy from any grocery store for less than a dollar a gallon.

this is what I use also but It was pointed out to me that spring water has a high salt content and salt makes me thirsty so I just drink more