I'm going to be brewing for the first time in a while at a new place and the tap water here tastes really good. Charlie Papazian once said something like, "if it tastes good, you can brew with it" but here's my question. I only have capacity to do partial boils and typically I use bottled water to top off at the end so that I don't need to worry about contamination. What do you guys think about using my tap water to top off? It will not be boiled, it comes through an unsanitized faucet, my first thought is I'm asking for trouble and should just shell out for my usual bottled stuff. Are my concerns unwarranted?
I'd be less worried about sanitation and more worried about chlorine or chloramines. Does your tap water have either/both of those? Most municipal water does. If so, you want to use campden to get rid of it. Oh, and boiling for sanitation purposes would be a good idea too.
When I was doing partial mash batches I would top off with my household well water straight from the tap. Never an issue with infection or sanitation or off flavors. If you have municipal tap water I would be concerned with chlorine or chloramine contaminating your batch and making it taste wrong.
Topping off with good tap water is fine so long as you take care of the chlorine/chloramine. But should you spend money on bottled water? Maybe, if you can't deal with chlorine and your bottled source is chlorine free then sure. Just as important, you need you really need to be doing full wort boils. That is by far and away your best solution. Probably the single easiest improvement you can make. And immediately noticeable. But until then, chlorine free water ok. And add pretty soon after the boil to top off. Add water after fermentation begins and you are adding oxygen to your wort and that is not good. Cheers.
Municipal tap water is sanitized. So, the chlorine/chloramine issue notwithstanding, as long as it tastes good, it's fine for this purpose.
Since you're doing at least part of your batch with extract, bottled ro or distilled water may be best overall.
