This 'RO water' you guys talk about...

or your racking cane. gets right up in there.

 

Like billandsuz stated, use a racking cane. I place a racking cane in my carboys when I ‘drain’ them of water.

Cheers!

 

Any info on RO/DI water??? The system I have is a 5 stage, which includes the DI resin cartridge.

Does the De-ionization have any negative effect in the brewing process? I am going to brew my first batch next week and was planning to use the RO/DI from my holding tank

 

My muni water supply is terrible. Tastes bad, very alkaline and full of chloramine. I used to try to treat it or filter it but it is much easier to buy RO or distilled water at the store. Even buying by the gallon it's $0.70. I need to start buying by the five gallon jug to reduce costs.

I have a PUR faucet filter and my fridge has an in-line filter for cold water. I use both for drinking and sometimes for cooking but at the cost of those filters it's cheaper to buy water at the store. I do use the filtered water for starters, experiments, etc. where I am less concerned about the taste. I just need to make sure the ph is ok.

 

Am I reading this correctly? You use RO for brewing and muni-filtered for starters?

I'm pretty sure that as disgusting as any muni-water might be your pH will be okay. Do you use DME for starters? I'm thinking that the DME should correct any muni-water to the correct pH.

 

I use filtered tap water for starters, and RO for brewing. The yeast need some of the minerals in the starter, and I am too lazy to measure our the tiny amounts that would take. For a 10 gallon batch I will measure out the additions of minerals, but for some styles that is still pretty small. Sometimes you just have to be pragmatic. There probably are the minerals in the DME also, and I do add nutrient for for the yeast. Maybe I will try RO sometime for starters.

 

Yeah, I use tap water filtered through a PUR filter for starters. It doesn't taste terrible after being filtered but I don't know what the water composition looks like coming out so I don't use it for brewing. The ph of the local water is very high. I'm sure the filter takes care of it. I usually only worry about the ph of the starter during dry seasons when the minerals are likely to be more concentrated in the water supply. As a fuel source in my starters I use extra runnings from prior beers that I boil down and freeze. When it's time to make a starter I just thaw, dilute to 1.030, boil, cool and pitch. DME is an unneeded cost when I have free wort available.

Using RO water gives me better consistency in my beer and it's much easier to modify with brewing salts.

 

Agreed. My philosophy is that I am growing yeast, and I am dumping the liquid once the yeast are crashed.

I am drinking the beer, so the pH in the mash, and the flavor ions I add are important for that. RO is a good tool.