store purchase 5 gallon water, questions

[planohog]

I want to get the best water for mashing this time. Due to long learning curve I never really paid much attention to water.
I want to spend a little hoping that takes the quality up. What does the HD crew recommend. We have all the normal stores around here,
Wal****,Kro**** and all the big box stuff. I drink out of the water hose , but I want my mash output to be the best I can.

[Corn Cracker]

Are you on city or well water? Ive heard some people's city water being better than others, I'm on a well, I know its got a high iron content and being close to the coast its probably got a little salinity going as well, it taste good so I use it. If yours smells like chlorine, have you thought about distilling your water to use?

[Corn Cracker]

Most bottled water is filtered/purified city water, some is "spring water". I used the Walmart water when I first started, its just "purified" city water.

[Copperhead road]

What problems have you had with fermentation and mashing to make you think there is an issue with your water supply ??

[Salt Must Flow]

There are a lot of topics here about water. People who make beer for instance GEEK out about water chemistry. Not so much here though.

"Purified water" is pretty vague. It's likely Reverse Osmosis water and wouldn't surprise me if it was UV treated. RO water is usually 10ppm (parts per million) or less. Reverse Osmosis removes almost all minerals, particulates, chemicals, odor and color out of the water. My tap water is ground water/well water and is 240ppm. You could drive down the street and their well water could be 400+ppm.

A lot of people say that yeast likes water with beneficial minerals. I don't know what those minerals are, the levels of them and never bothered with it.

[shadylane]

Have your tap water tested.

[planohog]

im happy with my water really, it has all the big city stuff , trying to improve where i can. its really easy to turn on the kitchen sink and boil it. when I add to the ferment, I add spring water of some kind, it has not been boiled yet. i agree with you , the backset is some rank stuff.

[shadylane]

If using water that's been boiled, be sure to aerate it after it cools down because yeast needs oxygen at first to multiply.

[planohog]

If using water that's been boiled, be sure to aerate it after it cools down because yeast needs oxygen at first to multiply.

Drill baby drill, in reverse seems to make plenty. using a mortar mix bit.

[TDick]

Have your tap water tested.

My town has some funky city water. But I a well had been installed for my sprinkler system.
A few months ago I took soil samples to my County Extension Service office to let them send it off for testing for my lawn.
While I was there, they mentioned that I could take water samples to the city for free testing.

Another alternative for those who are doing small batches and like distilled water - my Vevor Water Distiller cranks out a gallon for pennies.

I'm using my well water, haven't had it tested, but I do have a question.
We all know about limestone for bourbon. I was walking through Lowes, saw bags of limestone with a bunch spilled on the ground.

limestone.jpeg

I asked a guy working if I could have a few of the stones and he just shrugged okay.
So wondering what the effect if any, putting them in water for a few days would have.
Or even putting them in the air still to prevent possible puking?

[shadylane]

I want to get the best water for mashing this time. Due to long learning curve I never really paid much attention to water.
I want to spend a little hoping that takes the quality up. What does the HD crew recommend. We have all the normal stores around here,
Wal****,Kro**** and all the big box stuff. I drink out of the water hose , but I want my mash output to be the best I can.

The only time water chemistry gets really critical is when mashing with only the natural enzymes in malt. I always cheat and use enzymes.
I use RO water for diluting neutral to drinking strength.
Tap water for everything else.

I even use tap water in a CPAP and there's no mineral build up.
For mashing added calcium, gypsum and magnesium sulfate are needed

[planohog]

i work the enzimes too, makes malto-meal runnny right quick.

[shadylane]

High temp alpha and gluco is not only cheap insurance, it's guaranteed to ferment to a lower final gravity.
Less chances to fail and more booze in the bottle.

[Turbo6ta]

The city water from the tap here in southern Florida tastes so bad, you don't even want to make coffee with it.

So, I just use those bottled water machines found in the local grocery stores.

I fill up empty and clean plastic gallon milk water jugs that cost me $0.50 for the gallon ... At least it tastes good and don't screw up the taste of the spirits I'm making.

[Yonder]

I only use store bought “pure life” so-called spring water enhanced with some chems. No chloramine or chlorine in it and a decent, fresh taste.

[MooseMan]

im happy with my water really, it has all the big city stuff , trying to improve where i can. its really easy to turn on the kitchen sink and boil it. when I add to the ferment, I add spring water of some kind, it has not been boiled yet. i agree with you , the backset is some rank stuff.

That water will be fine for your ferments, but decant it a day before, and splash it hard into the vessels, this and the 24hrs wait, will allow some of the additives to vent off.
If you have tons of chlorine in your water, you can dose a Camden tablet into it the day before too, that stuff drives off chlorine really well.

I use hot water direct from my PC to set up all my ferments, and that works really well for me.

[PalCabral]

If you can drink your water fine, what's wrong with it? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But you can improve it.

Minerals in the water improves the mashing in an all-grain and adds flavor to your wash, regardless if you use enzymes or not. Conversion of starch is not the only thing that happens during mashing. Not sure exactly how much of the beer flavors carry over to the final distillate but I like to think some of them do. And we like flavor, don't we? And we do like a clean ferment.

Unless you already know what's wrong with your water, go to the city/town/water owner and ask for an analysis of the water - in most countries, suppliers of public water must test their water regularly and make the test results available to the public. If you need help to interpret the results ask for help - there are more than one "geek" here on the forum who have looked at water analysis results before and can help you make sense of them.

Using RO or distilled water for your mashing is pretty extreme and should only be done if absolutely necessary, IMO. Water being stripped from key minerals like calcium and magnesium will need it put back in again, so you're basically paying for neutral water and then you're paying to put the minerals back in again. And buying liters of spring water is a very expensive way of making liquor.

I consider the water profile of Stockholm South, where I reside, as part of my beer profile, and now my liquor profile. I am proud of it, and lucky of course it's something to be proud of - it's unfortunately not good water everywhere.

On a side node, I will share one personal observation I have made since joining this great forum. Consider how many threads we have where the attention is on constructing equipment, soldering, welding, you could think this is a forum for plumbers, metal workers and home improvers. Consider how few posts we have about water chemistry, and you would not think we were making beer for distilling. And that's not critique, just an observation from the other side.

[Steve Broady]

Consider how many threads we have where the attention is on constructing equipment, soldering, welding, you could think this is a forum for plumbers, metal workers and home improvers. Consider how few posts we have about water chemistry, and you would not think we were making beer for distilling. And that's not critique, just an observation from the other side.

I take that as an indication that the design and construction and operation of the still has a greater impact on the final product than water chemistry does. That, and copper porn is a lot more fun to look at than water!

[Homebrewer11777]

There are a lot of topics here about water. People who make beer for instance GEEK out about water chemistry. Not so much here though.

Guilty as charged.

The key to any of this is understanding the water you have to work with. My water is super soft, nearly RO out of the tap, but occasionally treated with chlorine, especially in the summer. So in beer brewing I tend to use brewing salts (gypsum, epsom, CaCl, NaCl) and always treat for the possibility that chlorine might be in my water. In other parts of the country brewers have to deal with very hard and/or alkaline water and will need to reduce mineral content. There is no one size fits all water treatment and it really depends on what you are working with.

Given I know what I need to do to MY water to make good beer, it seems reasonable to me to do pretty much same thing for making distillers beer. I'd not suggest treating someone else's water the same way without understanding what their water is really like.

[Bushman]

We have been on a well for over 43 years and have are water tested about every 5 years.

[Homebrewer11777]

Consider how many threads we have where the attention is on constructing equipment, soldering, welding, you could think this is a forum for plumbers, metal workers and home improvers. Consider how few posts we have about water chemistry, and you would not think we were making beer for distilling. And that's not critique, just an observation from the other side.

I take that as an indication that the design and construction and operation of the still has a greater impact on the final product than water chemistry does. That, and copper porn is a lot more fun to look at than water!

Honestly that is also the case in the beer brewing forums. Equipment is way more fun to look at than water and gets more of the focus. Whether it is temperature controlled recirculating mash systems, shiny conical fermentors with glycol chilling systems, closed transfer kegging, equipment and gear gets way more attention. After that probably recipe design with water treatment occasionally discussed in context of a recipe design but not to the extent of the grain bill, hops and yeast.

But when beer brewers come to their forums or their brew clubs with bad beer and want to know how to fix it, the issue is more likely to be sanitation or water chemistry than brewing equipment or recipe design.

[PalCabral]

I take that as an indication that the design and construction and operation of the still has a greater impact on the final product than water chemistry does. That, and copper porn is a lot more fun to look at than water!

Very good point about the water!

[jonnys_spirit]

https://findaspring.org/map/

Cheers,
-j