RO water source?

I get mine from my local Co-op. It's free with membership. I only brew 5 gallon batches, so this is feasible, but if you're doing 10 gallons at a time, you're really going to need a home system unless you enjoy lugging water.

 

I answered 'buy it.' But really, I buy distilled. (There are none of those commercial RO vending machines in my area.) I figured Distilled was close enough to the intent of the question.

 

A perfectly adequate home system can be cobbled together for under $100. $150 for a bargain priced, generic packaged system (ebay is a good source for these). You'll need to up the size of the tank, though. Most home systems include a 3.2 gallon tank, of which you can probably draw 2 gallons in a reasonable length of time (it slows as it empties). My 14 gallon tank will deliver 5 gallons in about ten minutes. Since I all but abandoned extracts a few years ago, I don't really need the big tank anymore. Chicago water is fine for virtually any style I want to brew, though I'll occasionally blend it with RO water for Pilsners and other styles that benefit from softer water.
As to the marginal cost of making your own RO water, at a 10:1 waste:water ratio (I'm guessing on the high side), I'm paying about 3 cents/gal. Waste water can be used for other things - watering plants, flushing the toilet, or even blending to create yet another water profile for brewing when your municipal supply is lacking in minerals for a particular style.

 

I currently buy it at $1 for 5 gallons from an RO vending machine. Been able to secure a free Millipore Milli-Q RO system from school and am in the process of trying to figure out how to immobilize/mount it for use with my homebrew setup (it weighs about 60 lbs).

 

After replacing a couple of membranes on my 20 year old U-T-C systems, I can tell you buying RO water at the store has it's advantages : )

 

We have a local business...Water to Go...but I typically use half RO with half of my well water. Works well for most styles.

 

I won't disagree with that. But it's still easier not to. (kinda the same reason I would use NG instead of propane, even without the 90% price saving)

 

The town/county I'm living in is kind of unique in that noone drinks the water here...I go thru a lot of water for non-beer uses also....membranes ~ $70 ea...filters a lot more frequently. NG is a no-brainer : )

 

I don't know that much about NG. Is it measured in BTU? Also how fast can you get to a boil? I'm assuming you have some form of jet burner or a Blichmann that could move some serious gas.

 

My 32 jet burner is insane when on full out. It can get first run its boiling before a batch sparge is done... My boil off rate is insane when on full out, I boiled off 8 gallons to 3 last time in a 105 minute boil!

 

Picture! Picture!

 

Never taken one (I will try to remember to do so if I brew this weekend), but it was bought here: http://www.cpapc.com/32-Tip-Round-Nozzle-Jet-Burner-natural-gas-P470C244.aspx

Someone else has a video:

 

hmmmm... major topic shift!
NG burners are rated in BTU/hr, just like propane or any other gas burner. Mine is a 23 tip wok burner, much like the one in the link that kjyost posted (actually, mine is here: http://www.cpapc.com/23-Tip-Round-Nozzle-Jet-Burner-natural-gas-P469C0.aspx). This one is 100K BTU. It'll bring 12 gallons of water from 50-ish degrees to strike temp in about ten minutes (not enough time to measure and mill the grain, so I had to adjust my routine when I got this burner ). Mash temp to rolling boil also takes about ten minutes. I'm considering plugging some of the jets since I have a hard time preventing boil overs. Even with the ball valve nearly closed (just before the flame kicks), it's still cranking out some serious heat. But at that point, the gas is flowing too slowly to take in sufficient air, so it's also cranking out some serious soot. Reducing the number of jets should fix this. Note that each jet has its own orifice and air intake, meaning that this is, essentially, 23 individual burners. (I'm sure there are technical terms for all this, but that's not my forté)

Not sure what you mean by moving "some serious gas". I simply open a 1/2" ball valve connected to my home's gas supply.

 

That's just insane.

 

Good god that's ridiculous. I mean, the guy in the video looked like he was setting his CONCRETE ON FIRE. Also I was expecting these things to cost hundreds of dollars--I was beyond shocked that it was only 25.

 

Indeed! I had never heard of these burners until a few months ago after someone talked about them in this forum (sorry, I don't recall who it was). I speculated, at the time, that someone fell into a deal with a Chinese manufacturer and imported a boatload of these (no pun intended). They didn't specify a BTU rating at that time, so I even speculated that they were not approved for sale in the US and that the supply would soon dry up (I'm sure the story is not nearly that intriguing, but it was fun to imagine that I was getting something hot - again, no pun intended).
The downside, such as it is, is that it's a bare burner. You either need to adapt an existing stand, or build your own. I built mine using steel that I bought at my local Home Depot clone (it looks remarkably like an Erector Set project).

 

The ball valve is installed at the end of an 18" nipple connected to the burner. I'm considering increasing that to 24" since 18" is borderline uncomfortable when it's full open (I seldom run it like that)

 

I am using a 10' run of temperature rated hydraulic hose...