Filtered Water

[jubbo11]

I live in Essex and the water is very hard.

In the house I use filtered water for the kettle to prevent limescale build up and it works a treat.

When I brew I use tap water and then boil up a large quantity for use to remove the limescale. The amount of limescale is quite amazing and I have to give the element a good scrape before I can use it to boil the wort.

I have a couple 25l food safe water containers. I am considering filling these with filtered water the day before a brew.

Does anyone know of any problems using filtered water? Are there some things which are removed that I need to add back?

Any help would be appreciated

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I treat my water with CRS/AMS to reduce the alkalinity. I also have quite hard water

I never bother pre boiling to remove the liescale, it seems too much effort to me.

I test the Alkalinity of the water using a Salifert pH test kit, then treat with CRS accordingly.

I would imagine filtered water would remove some things you would need to add back, but I'm not really sure.

[jubbo11]

Thanks for that.

How much do you typically add for a 5gallon brew?

Cheers

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I would probably add about 25 ml for a 5 gallon brew, it would depend on the Alkalinity.

I usually have hardness of approx 3.65 meg/l, which x 50 = 182.5 mg CaC03/l.

I would target getting my liquor to 50 mg CaCO3/l so knowing 1ml CRS reduces Alkaliniy by 183 mg CaCO3/l, to treat my total liquor of 34 litres I would need

182.5-50 = 132.5 = Amount of CaCO3 I need to reduce my liquor by
132.5 x 34 = 4505 = Total amount of CaCO3 to remove
4505/183 = 24.6 = Amount of CRS required.

I also use a Camden Tablet to remove the Chloramines and Chlorine

And for some reason that I'm not really sure of I add a teaspoon of Gypsum to the Mash, and a Teaspoon of gypsum to the boil along with half a teaspoon of Epsom salts.

[Aleman]

I live in Essex and the water is very hard.

In the house I use filtered water for the kettle to prevent limescale build up and it works a treat.<snip>

Does anyone know of any problems using filtered water? Are there some things which are removed that I need to add back?

It depends on the filter.

Hardness is the amount of calcium and magnesium ions in the water

Generally water softeners replace calcium and Magnesium ions in the incoming water with twice the level of sodium ions in the treated water.

For brewing we need calcium and magnesium and do not need sodium . . . Therefore . . . Water Softener = Bad For Brewing

Although it should be fitted with a seperate unsoftened water tap . . . after all if you have a hardness level of around 200 ppm . . . you will have 400ppm of sodium after treatment . . . Anyone you know on a low sodium diet??? . . . . Or have high blood pressure ?

The MUCH more expensive filters use Deionising resin that strips loads of chemicals from the water replacing them with H+ and OH- ions . . . Bear in mind that you do need sensible amounts of calcium and magnesium and a whole host of other ions in 'trace' amounts.

[Dennis King]

Hi Jubbo, where in Essex are you, my treatment is much the same as Steves which is no surprise as we are only a few miles from each other and both get our water from Hanningfield reservoir. I always to pre boil my water for years until I discovered chemical treatment were less of a pain in the arse.