Water; what source do you favor

[wlockwood]

My tap water tastes pretty gross even after it has gone through the charcoal filter in the fridg (new). Before I moved here I used reverse osmosis water from my sink (never tested it). It taste was great.

Is there a consensus on water source?

Thank you,

Will L.

[cyburai]

I've had pretty good luck with out water out in the county. But I remember the water in Lawrence being very very bad. I've heard that it depends on what part of town you live in, since Lawrence has two water sources (the river and Clinton Lake).

My recommendation is to pick up drinking water from a grocery store, or have home delivery if you brew with frequency.

Yoder might be able to give you some better details on cost and such for delivery. (Since that's all I see him drink and use for beer).

Reverse Osmosis is an option, but I know nothing about it.

[Blktre]

I use filtered water from Clinton Lake. Shane uses filtered water from the river, as does Freestate. None of us do much to the water to match profiles from different world sources. If it was me, i wouldn't worry to much about your water source. Our water makes great beers! Using products to adjust mash PH or gypsum in the boil to help accentuate the hop profile on those hoppy beers is all id even mess with, besides charcoal filtering.

I think since you are used to drinking RO which is stripped of everything and now you are tasting some minerals for once has thrown your pallet. Lawrence water is pretty darn good imo..

[wlockwood]

Interesting point about the RO not having minerals. Dillons bolted tastes pretty good to me.


What type of filters do you and Shane use?

[Blktre]

What type of filters do you and Shane use?

We use the house filters that hold the 10" charcoal filters found at HD or Westlakes...

[fergmeister]

Same here as Andyhole. I have a dedicated filter on the brewery. Will I think your filter is in line for a change.

[wlockwood]

Upon further investigation I found out a few things.

First, it is not the lack of minerals (in RO water) that is causing the taste problem because Dillon's bottled and the Culligan (from Dillon's (39 cents/gal.)) taste fine. So I know it has to be something else.

I am pretty sure it is the geosmin (G oz min). Here is a link to a little information about this problem http://water.usgs.gov/wrri/98grants/Kansas.htm

In short, geosin is a by-product of cyano-bacteria. Cyano-bacteria eat the algae. So when there is an abundance of algae the cyano-bacteria eat well and produce more geosmin. And, it is much less a problem for the water of the Kaw river. The water treatment people do several things to minimize this problem but some still gets through.

So will a filter do the job? I need to try to get invited back over to Andy's to sample his filtered water (and drill another keg to begin to round out my system).

[shane]

WOW on the (G oz in) Will!! I think my tap water tastes of "organics",and have set up 2 of the westlake 1000gal charcoal inline filters pony'd together ,after that the water has much more clean flav............cheers

[Matt]

Interesting source Will. Thanks. One thing in particular stood out to me, because I have family in Emporia and the water there used to be like, the worst in the state. It was AWFUL.

"...the City of Emporia, KS recently installed ozonation facilities for taste and odor control at a cost of $830,000."

Supposedly, they now have some of the best water in the state. I've tasted it recently and it wasn't bad at all. Tap water, all the same, but a million times better than it had been.

There have been rare instances of an algae taste to the tap water here, but that's like maybe once a year, in the summer, when the algae blooms huge in the river and the regular processing just doesn't cut it on removing the taste. It's perfectly safe to drink, probably healthy for you in fact, just tastes bad.

Just my own two cents on my water source... I'll be using filtered tap water, just like Andy and Shane and Chuck and others... probably won't worry about taste too much though, as I think it tastes fine coming right out of my sink. It's more about removing chemicals that might not make for the best beer. Plus, I just don't have the time or energy at the end of the day to make a water run before I can brew -- or a warehouse to store bottled water. I'd rather just brew.

[meisel]

+1 on the in-line filters. I use em for all my drinking water, coffee, tea, and beer needs without any off flavor issues. I have considered swapping out the vinyl tubing I use now for polyethylene, but that's another topic.

The issue of blue-green algae in Kansas reservoirs has been known for years. High nitrogen levels in the water, due to fertilizer runoff, is the culprit. Geosmin is released by a number of different microbes when they die, blue-green algae is just one source. I was surprised at how sensitive humans are to geosmin: 5ppt is enough to set off our noses.

I still haven't had any issues with the water here in Lawrence. I say brew on!

[Jensen]

Using distilled or RO water is fine, especially if you are using extracts. The extract maker has already done the mashing for you. The mineral content stays in tact, and at the proper levels, when re-hydrated to your batch size. It could actually be argued that using tap water, with all the minerals, could actually add too many minerals to the wort-- especially in some of the pilsner styles that are known to have very little.

That being said, "stripped" water used for a full all-grain mash will leave the wort lacking in ions that indeed are needed for proper yeast metabolism and malt and hop presence. If you want a "clean" profile in all-grain recipes some ion additions will be needed. There are quite a few calculators for free on the web that will aid you in achieving the proper ion concentrations for a particular style of beer-- only using a handful of very easily obtainable salts. Either way, some sort of prep should always happen with your water. Me, I am a distilled water guy-- I like to get out the scale and salts and look like a coke dealer on brew day.







.

[Bill]

Monette traded some art for a small RO system. I haven't hooked it up or even really looked it over yet. I'll need to get a hold of you Jensen to discuss salts. I'd be willing to give it a try.

[supersloth]

Water filter? We need no stinking water filter!!


Gordo