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OK, I have one more question brought around by my last post question. I want to qualify it by stating that I have looked and looked hard but maybe not in the right place.
Is there anything out here or any where else that discusses distilling water? Does it matter? When I first started out in brewing, I had some terrible fails and to make a long story short it turned out to be my well water. I went to RO and using Brewers Friend's water calculator added the salts to turn out a pretty good product. I am now wondering if I am shooting myself in the foot carrying this over into distillation? I have noticed several recipes stating to add gypsum to a mix almost arbitrarily. In the beer world to much gypsum (SO4) can give you the squirts???? Am I adding to my own misery? Does water make that much difference to distilling, particularly in bourbon?
Thanks to everyone who responded to my conversion question!!!!!!

I'll just add to be aware that water is a solvent
If your distilling it yourself use a SS condenser
Its different with ethanol in the mixture usually we have high concentrations in the condenser
Have you tried to filter your water through charcoal
That stuff loves ripping shit out of solution

Addition: Once you distill the water all the non volatile components are taken out
Water likes such things and it will be alot more reactive then normal
I only mention this because I know a few people who can't have to much copper
They get very sick if they do

well, there are only 3 ingredients in boubon and water is a big one, so it will impact the final product

building water from RO seems excessive though. maybe try your well water and see what it makes. mine works excellent.

ro for dilution, for sure though.

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As far as distilling is concerned, I think water composition is mostly important to keep the yeast happy. Most other things like sulfates, chloride will be stilled out, as long as the PPM isn't excessive.
I make all grain mash's like I would a beer, raising or lowering PH to the 5.5ish range with salts, but I would most likely use chloride to lower it because ya get more bang for the buck.
Also remember, If u are making sugar washes, they become very acidic and it won't hurt to start with a higher ph, depending on your total alkalinity.

Oak Pollen wrote:OK, I have one more question brought around by my last post question. I want to qualify it by stating that I have looked and looked hard but maybe not in the right place. Is there anything out here or any where else that discusses distilling water? Does it matter?

Look in the Mashing & Fermenting forum. There are discussions of water conditioning there. Does it matter....well, maybe, depending on how bad (or good) your water source is. As you well know from your beer brewing experience, some minerals (and pH) make mashing grains and starch conversion easier and faster.

Oak Pollen wrote:When I first started out in brewing, I had some terrible fails and to make a long story short it turned out to be my well water. I went to RO and using Brewers Friend's water calculator added the salts to turn out a pretty good product. I am now wondering if I am shooting myself in the foot carrying this over into distillation? I have noticed several recipes stating to add gypsum to a mix almost arbitrarily.

So, you understand the advantage to “benchmark” your water. In beer, water is 94-95% of the product, so it is very important, both to the finished flavors, but also the processes. In distillation, you process the ferment (opposed to bottling). But the processes up to that point are very much aligned. Water matters.

And when tempering your distilled product, the tempering water matters. Pay attention to it. I advocate RO for tempering, although I use tap water for brewing. I do, however release the chlorine by boiling the water before mashing. You probably know how to prepare the water for brewing....so, I’d say “keep it up”. You’ll get there.

Oak Pollen wrote:...In the beer world to much gypsum (SO4) can give you the squirts???? Am I adding to my own misery? Does water make that much difference to distilling, particularly in bourbon?

Squirts???? Maybe you’re thinking of magnesium sulfate (epsom salts) They indeed are a natural laxative....just ask your mother. As far as I know, gypsom (calcium sulfate) does not do the same thing, at least not near as significantly. But yeast does need magnesium as well as calcium for their metabolism....but probably not as much as you’d need to get “the trots”.