Is it true what I’ve heard… it’s not the water used for brewing, but the minderals in the water. If so, I’d like to know if I can just go to the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains here in the Appalachains and collect water for my next batch. Will I need to do anything special with that water? Sanitizing? Filtering? I’d like to use non-city water for my Appalachian Pale Ale.
Are you an extract brewer or all-grain? If you’re an extract brewer, you can use whatever water source you want without thinking twice. The malt extract has all the minerals you need for yeast health. If you collect water from a natural, untreated source, you most definitely want to boil it before it enters your fermenter.
Note: with the exception of distilled water (and for the purpose of this discussion) water treated using reverse osmosis, all water will have minerals–even if you collect it from a mountain stream.
Its more about the lack of minerals in your water that makes brewing easier. Its easier to add minerals than remove them from water. The hydrologic cycle removes most minerals and deposits that water as rain. Going up the mountain is probably going to get you less mineralized water. I could imagine running up Cruso Rd to that waterfall near BRP. Grabbing a few buckets of that water might be a good idea, but you still wouldn’t know whats in there. At my cabin in Blairsville, I can detect a slight metallic note in the groundwater supply. But I’m pretty sure its very soft and has low alkalinity. It would be great brewing water excepting for the metallic notes. Running up the mountain could present the same problem. If I’m not mistaken, Canton water is probably reservoir or river water and it probably doesn’t have a lot of mineralization since its local runoff. I’d find out what is in your local tap water first. It might not be that bad.
The brewing process is innately a sanitizing process, so as long as you aren’t drinking any of the mountain water that hasn’t been heated to boiling, you are OK.
The advice above regarding using any water for brewing an extract beer is absolutely wrong. While its correct that a brewer doesn’t typically need to worry about adding extra minerals to their water since the extract already has some. The problem is that there are plenty of tap water sources that have too much mineralization and adding that to the mineralization that is in the extract could easily be a disaster. In the case of Briess extracts, they already have excessive sodium content (100 ppm Na when reconstituted to 1.045 gravity). If the local water has additional sodium, that is going to be some salty beer! On top of this malady, high alkalinity tap water can leave the reconstituted wort with too high a pH. That will create rough flavor from the hops and the overall beer flavor will be dull and muddy. Extract brewers should typically use the lowest mineralized water they can get. Distilled or RO water is highly recommended for reconstituting extract.
[quote=“mabrungard”]
The advice above regarding using any water for brewing an extract beer is absolutely wrong. While its correct that a brewer doesn’t typically need to worry about adding extra minerals to their water since the extract already has some. The problem is that there are plenty of tap water sources that have too much mineralization and adding that to the mineralization that is in the extract could easily be a disaster. [/quote]
To the OP: Ignore what anyone else says about water and listen to Mark.
To Martin: Thanks for clarifying something that I know a lot of people have only partially right. Lesson learned.
[quote=“kcbeersnob”][quote=“mabrungard”]
The advice above regarding using any water for brewing an extract beer is absolutely wrong. While its correct that a brewer doesn’t typically need to worry about adding extra minerals to their water since the extract already has some. The problem is that there are plenty of tap water sources that have too much mineralization and adding that to the mineralization that is in the extract could easily be a disaster. [/quote]
To the OP: Ignore what anyone else says about water and listen to Mark.
To Mark: Thanks for clarifying something that I know a lot of people have only partially right. Lesson learned.[/quote]
That’s Martin and I agree. Don’t listen to anyone but Martin.
I’ll add that local water could also have any number of unsavory flavors (iron, sulfur, etc.) so that advice above needs clarification for sure.
It sounds like you want to use this water just to say that you did, and I can definitely see the appeal. I say you may as well give it a shot, the worst that can happen is you have a less than great batch of beer, and you know not to do it again. You could always send a sample to a lab, but if it was me I would just go for it.
So, I propose you collect enough water to brew a batch, then boil a sample and let it cool. Taste it, and if it tastes okay give it a shot. If you don’t like the taste, you could always try running it through a carbon filter and see if that helps.
Now, I’m not saying Martin’s advice is wrong, because he’s absolutely correct. I’m just saying you stand a good chance of things being just fine, and if you want you may as well give it a try.
Ok i have to ask a question thats always been on my mind since i started brewing a year ago. I do both AG and extract. I use only Kentwood artiesian water. IS this a good choice or not. My tap water is highly chlorinated . I mean u can actually see the white stuff floating in a clear glass. Any suggestions on a better or other choice of water i should try. By the way i failed to mention the few brews that i did like still were not GREAT and i just thought this might be y.
W/o knowing the mineral content of your water, it’s hard to say. It could be excellent for one style of beer but not so great for another style.
You may want to look into getting a water analysis done or the local water provider may have it on record. Then put the numbers into a program like Bru’n Water. Even if your water isn’t perfect, you can dilute it w/ distilled water or RO water or add minerals to the water, depending on what you are brewing.
There are different methods for removing chlorine so don’t discount it for that reason alone.
Chlorine and chloramine removal is a must for all brewing water. It takes so little of those disinfectants to produce chlorophenols in your beer. Removal is easy. You just have to do it. There is a section on chlorine removal in the Water Knowledge page of the Bru’n Water website.
The white stuff doesn’t come from the disinfectant. Its more likely just dissolved CO2 in the water that clouds the water immediately after its drawn from the tap. A good test is to fill a glass and let it sit for several minutes. If its the CO2 dissipating, the cloudiness will rise to the top of the glass and disappear.
The high CO2 content is also an indicator of alkalinity and alkalinity is the number 2 thing you want to correct in your brewing water (chlorine = #1). Maybe some acidification of that water is needed to neutralize the alkalinity?
So the question remains, Is the use of kentwood bottle water ok for brewing most beers. Im gonna pull a chemical sample from my water board. Where do i find this bruin water information?
Again, we don’t know what the mineral profile is of the kentwood bottled water. For extract, I would guess yes. For all-grain, you may need to dial it w/ mineral additions, acid, or dilution. When I used bottled water, I contacted the company for the information. Even if you know their source for the water, you don’t know if they are altering it any.
As for Bru’n Water, look at Martin’s post above yours. He has the link in his signiture at bottom of his post.
It will also answer/clarify many of your questions.
ok thanks. I didnt know that the water chemical make -up was so important in AG. Maybe one of the reasons some of my AG dont taste great to me. Maybe somethings missing
My recommendation to Shawn of trying buffer 5.2 is hearby retracted due to overwhelming opposition from more experienced persons than me.
As far as the OP (who is an extract brewer) is concerned though, I still think he should go for it and see what happens. 
First, there’s a big difference betweecorrect pH and mineral adjustments for flavor. Second, in my experience and that of many others, 5.2 not only doesn’t work but also imparts strange flavors to your beer. I recommend you skip it and learn to adjust your wateqr the right way.
+1 to what Denny mentioned above.
To keep things simple - If you are going with extract, just use RO water. you can get it for .39 cents a gallon, you know exactly what is in it (nothing basically), and the extract generally already has everything you need in it to start with. Perhaps . . . .perhaps . . . a gram or two of gypsum if you want to increase sulfate for a hoppy beer or something. But I would not worry about that until you are further down the road.
All grain - again - to keep it simple while you learn more about water and its effects on brewing, how to adjust, etc. I would maybe just follow the general guidelines in the link below. Start with RO water and add the additions based on beer style to get water that is in line with what you want to brew. Basically, there is a general guide in the first post that will get you in the ball park (and then hundreds of other posts discussing water if you want to learn more).
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewin ... er-198460/However, ultimately, there is no substitute to getting your water tested by someone like Ward Labs, and learning how to use that information in B’run Water. That will get you your best results for all grain.
Water has the potential to make a huge difference - especially if you are dealing with very hard water. It took me over a decade to brew an IPA that was any good. The key - learning about water and adjusting my very alkaline water. The second I did that, I made my first really, really good American pale ale.
I wish you didn’t live on the opposite coast, as I’ve brewed a number of your excellent recipes and would be real curious what you think of them. It may be that I just don’t know any better. Or it may be I’m just lucky that my local water is at least okay for a variety of styles.
Like I said, I’m going to take the plunge and get a ph meter and learn to do things right one of these days, but for the time being I’m going to keep up the 5.2. At the very least, with my water at least it doesn’t seem to cause any detrimental effect, as I’ve accidentally left it out before on recipes I’ve brewed many times. Without it my efficiency went down, and going by memory the flavor was about the same.
[quote=“kcbeersnob”]If you’re an extract brewer, you can use whatever water source you want without thinking twice.[/quote]I believe it’s preferable to use distilled water with extract. The extract already has the minerals of the source water and would then add to those in your brewing water, potentially elevating certain minerals beyond the desirable range for the style you are brewing.
I’ve been a little obsessed with brewing water lately. I know that your water composition can have a huge impact on what ends up in your glass. I like lighter-colored beers but I happen to have a good amount of bicarbonate in my water so it makes sense to look into this. I know a number of homebrewers who say to me, “Forget about it and just brew, dammit!” but those brewers may have much better water than mine or maybe they make beers that are a better fit for their water so they feel that there’s no reason to get into it. Beers that I make where 50% of the brewing water was RO or distilled came out much better… cleaner, smoother, clearer. I have looked at Martin’s water profiles in Bru’N’Water and I say thank you to him for putting that together. I noticed that when using those numbers, my pH is spot on which is great news. That said, I have to say that I feel (for my tastebuds anyway) that some of those profiles (Yellow Balanced, Amber Malty, etc.) had a little too much of things added to get to the numbers and I felt (and tasted) as though I overdid the additions. It might just be me and YMMV. Bottom line… look into your water, get an analysis and see how to adjust things for various styles. As Martin says… Alkalinity is never welcome and bicarbonate can get in the way in a lot of styles.
Sure, kick a guy while he’s down. 
Yes, Martin explained this very articulately.
Ugh. Skip the 5.2 and step up. I brewed a lot of weird-tasting batches, using 5.2. There was a large, immediate improvement in my beer when I stopped using it and started making water adjustments on my own. There’s a lot of great info out there. Braufessor’s link was useful, although I haven’t tried that method yet.
You’ll be glad you made the change, once you stop with the 5.2. :cheers:
