Best Water for Homebrewing

The answer to this relies entirely on the type of beer you're brewing and whether you're doing all-grain or extract.

If all-grain, the water is a key component for determining proper mash pH. It will also help you achieve the right flavor profile in your beer. Checkout the two links below as a starting place:

- http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/understanding-the-mash-ph/what-kind-of-water-do-i-need
- http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=198460

 

I do 100% distilled and build my water profile based on the style and want I what from the beer, i.e. More dry, sharper bitterness, more rounded etc. I don't have a ph meter so I can't test and adjust. I use the brewchiper water tab and it has always steered me in the right direction. Using 100% distilled I know exactly what I am starting out with, no guessing.

 

Best water for brewing is kind of like asking what is the best hop or the best grain. Well, it depends.

There are some universal truths here

• If it is good to drink, it is good to brew.
• duplicating classic styles requires water similar to the original source .
• any amount of chlorine, chloramine, iron or magnesium is always too much but not always so much to not be tolerated.
• homebrewers don't need to follow anyone's rules
• at least some mineral content is needed for all grain, distilled water is acceptable with extract.
• understanding water science is an important consideration if you intend to produce a specific beer but is also not all that important if you just need to make good beer.
• water chemistry for brewing is an advanced topic that only gets more complex the more you learn.

Whatever you do, don't go screwing with your water blindly. Brewers really need to know their water profile quite well before any adjustments are made.
Cheers.

 

I mostly agree. I'm hesitant on "If it is good to drink, it is good to brew." I guess I agree if good means "ok."

About Magnesium... I never add it, but some people swear by it for Porters. Personally I don't like the flavor and malt naturally has all the (trace) Mg needed by the yeast.

 

I'm with you on that, just trying to keep it simple. I always try to encourage people to not hung up on their water. 9 times out of 10 tap water with chlorine removal will do perfectly well.

Magnesium and Iron go hand in hand. Those of us with wells will usually suffer to some degree with iron and or magnesium. I believe both are not something any brewer might think "Good. Needs more iron." Didn't know about the use in porter. Maybe that will be the new house brew.

Cheers.

 

Noob that I am, this is exactly what I've concluded so far. I'm going to pick up some campden, and let it go at that until I can assemble the "starter" package (which might not be that big of a deal). That said, I hope to do so within the next one or two batches.

I generally like the beer I make better than what I can buy, but I'm not trying to make Duvel or a similarly refined brew.

 

This is one of those brewing "truths" that really leads to shitty beer. My tap water is great to drink, but the chloromine in it will make a beer taste like a goddamned band aid. Excuse my french, but it kills me to see this crap pushed here as good advice. I mean seriously, campden tablets are about the easiest water treatment out there, everyone should be using them if they are using tap water.

 

It's not crap advice at all, and surprise! Most breweries are using municipal water.

Chlorine and chloromine removal are important and I said that, so what are ranting on about anyway? On the list of 100 things a new brewer should study water chemistry is number 101.

Cheers.

 

I brew with my local municipal water. The main treatment I give it is to remove the chloromines (the municipal water in my part of in Central NJ comes from the old Delaware-Raritan Canal, and is heavily treated, so filtration or campden treatment is vital.
I had a lab analysis done of my current water (after treatment for chloramine removal) and was very happy to learn that it seems to match the mineral profile of London water remarkably well...which is perfect for most of the beers I like to make regularly.

In the 45 years since I started homebrewing, I've always been fortunate in that each time I've changed residences, I have seemingly always managed to land in areas that had very good to excellent municipal water quality usually requiring only very simple pre treatment for brewing (the spirit of Gambrinus must be somehow watching over me).

 

I use RO water and build it up with salts. Actually, I mash with straight RO water and a little acidulated malt or chalk in dark beers if needed. Then I add my salts to the boil kettle for flavor and mouthfeel purposes.

RO water/purified water from grocery.

 

I'm not buying the idea that a professional brewery tolerates ANY amount of chlorine or chloramine in their water, and suggesting anyone should is absurd.

 

Ok.
I am going to put on my day job hat and talk like an environmental scientist.

Breweries DO tolerate some chlorine. You don't know what you are talking about to be blunt.

At what concentration is chlorine a concern? What is the concentration of chlorine in your brewing water? What should it be for any brewer? Your blanket statement is not practical nor is it good advice. I imagine you do have these numbers handy, since you would be following your own advice. You are digging.

We can measure chlorine reliably to less than 1 µ/L. That's part per billion. So what ppb is chlorine ok? What you said is we should not tolerate ANY amount of chlorine... That is the kind of thing I hear from mis-informed and mostly crazed mom's who can't be bothered with science.

So, like I said, chlorine is a concern but it can be tolerated. Run your tap through a Brita or carbon block. Or use a campden tab if you like.

But don't get too hung up on water.

 

I just want to make sure that folks understand that water chemistry IS a big part of brewing with extract. With extract, you have to remember that a mash has already occurred and that all the salts that were in that original mash have now been concentrated into the extract. So RO or distilled or very soft water is going to be the best water for brewing with extract. Then you can do minor treatments with whatever salts/acids/bases needed…but while keeping in mind that salts are already in the extract…

As for @billandsuz …10ppb would be a good line in the sand. That would be the level chlorophenols can be detected…I've been meaning to get a pool kit to test my water post-carbon filter to make sure I'm getting below that level. I try to go slow for the filtration, but not positive I go slow enough. The think it was Martin Brungard who said a gallon/minute is a good flow rate and that is what I try for...

 

I agree...and would go further and say it is also the best starting water for AG because of it's flexibility/ease for different styles with minimal intervention beyond normal salt additions.

 

Now I will put on my homebrewers hat. As a homebrewer I don't have the ability to test my water to the same ability that you seem to. What I am seeing from you is a blanket statement of "don't worry about your water". So joe brewer goes out and brews his beer under the impression because it tastes good and someone with some vague sense of authority said that's good enough. From my direct experience as a home brewer I have used that same advice and it netted me a shitty beer full of chlorophenols. You can tout your degree as much as you want, it's good for your ego. But if you want to make beer without the addition of chlorophenols I suggest the simple insurance of always treating for chloramines.

 

Dave, this is what I use to verify that my dual stage block carbon filter system is ‘working’ properly: http://www.hach.com/free-total-chlorine-test-strips-0-10-mg-l/product?id=7640211603

FWIW, I operate at about 1 gallon per 1.5 minutes.

Cheers!

 

I'm in agreement as well, for DME/LME brewing. And I wish someone told me that 25 years ago when everyone was using LME and all-grain was something most of us only new from Papazian. As it is extract brewing can produce really enjoyable beers but because there is limited control there is so what limited results. You never know what and how much to add to your brewing water when you are flying blind.

My intention with the pithy list of water truths is essentially, for brand new brewers, here follow these semi-rules and everything will be alright. You don't need to get a lab report, you don't need make additions, you don't need to do much of anything except take care of the chlorine.

Pro-tip for the lazy - hard water? Cut it with DI.
Cheers

 

Somewhere I read that we are close to 100 times more sensitive to chlorophenols than to chlorine, and that was good reason to make sure you minimized the chlorine in the water.

As far as commercial breweries, on the way to HomebrewCon we stopped at a Brewery in MD, and the beers were all medicinal. The hops in the IPA almost covered it up. Almost.