I’ve purchased a new toy this week so I’m going to walk a little bit about water sources, which relates heavily to my toy. Of course you can get water from just about anywhere, and as Kay talked about in his article - Water Chemistry 101, there is a lot to it. Of course at its core it is quite simple, if the water tastes good it probably will make beer that tastes good. But if you are looking to take things up another step and you have already taken care of fermentation temperature control, sanitation, fast wort chilling, full boils, yeast starters, and proper aeration then perhaps water may be a good step.

While water plays a more integral role in all grain brewing due to its influence on the mash, it still plays a role with extract brewers. The flavor of the water will obviously impact the flavor of the beer, its just that with extract there is no need to worry about the pH of the mash because the extract manufacturer already did that.

Back to water sources; of course the easiest way to get water is from your tap, but other sources generally include buying or producing the water yourself. You can purchase several types including Spring Water, Distilled Water and Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water. You can produce Filtered Water, Distilled Water, and RO water at home as well.

I started like most, getting water straight from the tap. This worked just fine and made drinkable beer. But as I tinkered with my beer and educated myself more I found that chlorine in the water is not a good thing. The next step I took was to remove the chlorine. If you have good city water (check your profile against Kay’s article) for the most part, removing the chlorine may be all that is necessary. To do this you have several options:

1. Boil the water - This will off gas the chemical as long as your water isn’t treated with chloramines in which case it will be ineffective.





2. Let it sit out overnight - This is similar to boiling. As long it is treated with chlorine and not chloramines it will off-gas overnight.





3. Filter - use a water filter to dechlorinate the water. Check the filter instructions to insure it gets rids of chlorine and chloramines.





4. Campden tablets (Potassium Metabisulphite) - Crush one in up to 20 gallons of water to neutralize chlorine and chloramines quickly (several minutes). This is my preferred method to dechlorinate household water. It is quick, cheap, and easy.





5. Spring water - you can purchase spring water at the grocery store, which should be a good, all-purpose, chlorine free brewing water. This is my fall back in a pinch.

When I started dechlorinating, my beer improved and it was reflected on my judging sheets. This is a great and comfortable place for most brewers, and unless you are the tinkering type or really interested in the final step, I recommend stopping here. The next step is to build your own water. This is where many beers go from good to amazing, and others go from good to mess. Messing with your water can be that final push over the top or can be very detrimental to your beer if you are not careful.

I’m not sure why, but I couldn't leave well enough alone. So I opened Pandora’s box and started building my own water profiles. Plus I’m not nearly as fortunate as Kay when it comes to a municipal water profile. Let me start by saying you can dilute your household water with distilled or RO water if your profile is close to a good range. This is nice because it will save you a lot of work and time.

I began by purchasing distilled water from the grocery store and using various water spreadsheets and programs out there in the interwebs to mimic water profiles from around the world for the beers I was trying to make. This went ok, but I made a few average beers in the process and ultimately decided to switch to a more simple approach when it came to brewing water.

I found the direction Gordon Strong gave in his book Brewing better Beer and in at least one Brewing Network podcast to be simple yet effective. In short you treat your mash with calcium chloride for malty beers, calcium sulfide for hoppy beers and a mixture if it is balanced. If mashing dark grains you can add calcium carbonate to balance acidity. After that adjust your mash with phosphoric acid to a range of 5.2 to 5.5. Since I started following his advice I’m much happier with the overall outcome of my beer. I recommend checking out his book for additional details on water, I don’t want to give away all of his work here!

It was around this point that I also switched from buying jugs of distilled water to filling up reusable jugs from the RO water station at the grocery store. Mostly because it was cheaper if you reused jugs. On thing I did begin to notice over time is that it can take a while to fill the jugs depending on when you hit the store. One time I needed 20 gallons to brew the next day. The system clearly had been taxed as RO water takes sometime to make. It took me an hour to fill the jugs. I was frustrated and I drew the line there.

I have been thinking about this for a while, so I pulled the trigger after wasting so much time filling jugs. The new toy I purchased has an under sink home RO water system. I figured I’d have plenty of uses for it from brewing, to drinking water, to humidifiers, and lots of other stuff so I pulled the trigger. It just arrived in the mail this past week and I’m looking forward to having on demand water and not having to haul 20 jugs of water back and forth every time I brew. The other plus side is if I need more while brewing or just a small amount to make a starter or something simple like that I can just pour some. I’ll have a little more feedback on this when I’ve used it for a while. Until then I reserve my advice on rather I’d recommend getting one yourself.

In summary, water sources can vary from straight tap water all the way to your own distilled/RO water built with minerals to your specification. Either way you're going to make good drinkable beer as long as you have good tasting water and/or show restraint with your additions. I highly recommend dechlorinating, beyond that it is up to you how much or how little you do. Have fun experimenting, take good notes and enjoy adding another element to your brewing!