what about water?

[steve thailand]

its me again, researching this subject to death!

i've read that the taste of a beer depends a lot on the water used. i guess that's why Burton on Trent was a major brewing centre when I was a wee bearn.

i have a couple of options here for water. my city water is pumped from underground wells and i know contains pretty high levels of metals because it reacts badly with the chlorine in my pool. i filter it in a commercial drinking water filter for drinking and it tastes fine to me. most people buy drinking water in plastic bottles which goes through reverse osmosis and sometimes UV sterilization.

which of these 2 options, filtered city water or R.O./UV, would be better for my bitter?

i just remembered, a third option is, i collect rain water into my water tanks which is normally mixed with city water but i could set it up to save 100% rain water. would that be better?

thanks, steve

[pinnacle]

believe it or not the best water you can use (in my experience) is ASDA SMART PRICE WATER 2l (13p) it seems to be have turned out very nicely in the brew i used it for, and i have heard others on the forum agreeing it is top dog for brewing



EDIT: just realized your location.... what mineral waters are available to you?

[jubby]

I doubt if there is much chance of you obtaining a water quality report and even if you could, there's no guarantee of accuracy or consistency. I would not use RO water as the process removes some good stuff, there are others on here that will be able to expand on that. If I were in your position, I would boil the filtered tap water for 30 mins (simple carbon filter, which will remove metals and chlorine) allow it to cool and rack it off the sediment for use as suggested in GW's and other brewing books. This will remove most of the carbonates which you don't want but you will need to add some calcium in some form (Gypsum is good)

Not sure about the rainwater thing

[sam c]

hello,

i live in chaing mai and have recently started brewing myself here. ive done two brews now, one lager and one pale ale and both were done using the water i have deliverd to my house. it is reverse osmosis water. both brews turned out fine as far as im concerned. im sure i read in my brewing book that reverse osmosis water is fairly good to use for brewing, but correct me if im wrong.

out of interest where do you get your brewing supplies from? ive brough a few from england here with me but have pretty much run out and can now only make cider and a few other things but not beer.also how have you found the heat when brewing?

[steve thailand]

hello,

i live in chaing mai and have recently started brewing myself here. ive done two brews now, one lager and one pale ale and both were done using the water i have deliverd to my house. it is reverse osmosis water. both brews turned out fine as far as im concerned. im sure i read in my brewing book that reverse osmosis water is fairly good to use for brewing, but correct me if im wrong.

out of interest where do you get your brewing supplies from? ive brough a few from england here with me but have pretty much run out and can now only make cider and a few other things but not beer.also how have you found the heat when brewing?

i replied in my other thread. i havn't started brewing yet. i'm going to pick up some kits on my next visit to the UK then after that, i'll have them sent to my brothers house and he can forward using normal surface mail.

if you want me to mail something to you while i'm in the UK next month, PM me.

steve

[steve thailand]

I doubt if there is much chance of you obtaining a water quality report and even if you could, there's no guarantee of accuracy or consistency. I would not use RO water as the process removes some good stuff, there are others on here that will be able to expand on that. If I were in your position, I would boil the filtered tap water for 30 mins (simple carbon filter, which will remove metals and chlorine) allow it to cool and rack it off the sediment for use as suggested in GW's and other brewing books. This will remove most of the carbonates which you don't want but you will need to add some calcium in some form (Gypsum is good)

Not sure about the rainwater thing

these two sites: http://www.beverageanswers.com/beer/water.html and http://www.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/Biotec ... water2.htm seem to agree with you that ground water is preferable because of the trace elements. thanks

[Garth]

RO water can be and is used to brew. I know of at least one large brewery nearby that uses it, they use it as it is like blank canvas and then they only add the salts and minerals at the right quantities which they need for each style of beer.

If you can work out what salts and minerals you need to add, and get hold of them in Thailand, its a good idea. Otherwise, use the filtered water as previously mentioned.

I can't even begin to imagine the temp never dropping below 28C, that would be sheer hell for me. I cannot stand the heat.

[steve thailand]

i like the RO water idea and add the necessary stuff, that way i should have more control of the process i think.
which of these products would be good to get?
http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/catalog/ca ... WAT2017092
http://www.hopshopuk.com/categories/vie ... -treatment
thx steve.

P.S.
actually, it sometimes gets down to about 20degC in the cool season in south Thailand! but it you can't stand the heat, stay out of Thailand (and the tropics in general)