I don’t have a kettle big enough to boil all the wort I need for my carboy. Can I buy bottled water to top off without worry of contamination or is there something better to do.
I do it all the time. I have trouble lifting a brew pot with 5 gallons of wort in it with my health problems. I buy gallon jugs of water and put them in the refrigerator a day or two before I brew to get them cold and top off with them, with them being cold you don’t have to use yor wort chiller as long. Some will argue that you don’t make beer as good doing it that way insted of a full boil, I don’t have a problem with doing it that way.
Cheers
I fill about 4 gallons of ice water in my bottling bucket and put it in the fridge on my brew day. I usually get around 40* water to top off with. 20+ batches this way, no problem. If you got something in your water that will infect your beer, your city has got some serious health-code issues.
I sometimes do zakly what Jazzman does, and it works great and is easy. If I am using tapwater, I usually dip the tap into sanitizing solution just to make sure.
