Water Filters

[Western Brewer]

Hi Everybody,y
Has anybody used one of the inline water filters that you can get for around £40 and are they of any use in home brewing?
Do they remove chlorine as they claim?
Cheers, Mark

[Andy]

http://www.forumforfree.com/forums/inde ... wtopic=559



Funnily enough I popped into B&Q today and they had loads of the filter cartridges for sale, still £9.95. Farnborough B&Q Superstore.

[Western Brewer]

Thanks Andy

[Horden Hillbilly]

Yes, I use a Water Gem inline filter on all my brews, (beer/lager/wine) which I bought at the Hop & Grape. It is easy to install by anyone who is not too clever at DIY ( ie, me!).

Before, I used to use a jug type filter which used to take ages to filter the required water, especially if the cartridge was a couple of weeks old, they used to get an airlock very frequently! I spent as much time soaking & agitating the cartridge to remove the airlock & to try to get a reasonable flow from it as I did filtering! That was basically the reason I bought the Water Gem, to save time, I was quite happy with the water quality from the jug filter.

Regarding removing the chlorine, apparently if there is chlorine in your water and you boil hops in this, it gives off a TCP type flavour, I can honestly say that my AG brews have never suffered from this, so it must remove most of the chlorine.

The Hillbilly family use the filtered water for almost everything, ie making coffee & tea, boiling vegetables, drinking water, etc.

[Jim]

HH, do you know where your water comes from? Is it hard of soft? Mine comes from Sacriston, apparently, and is moderately soft.

[Horden Hillbilly]

Jim, I was told a good few years ago by the former owner of the home brew shop at Sunderland that the water in the Sunderland area was a blend from Houghton cut & Kielder. Before Kielder became operational in the early 1980's it was all from Houghton cut. I suppose being close to Sunderland mine is the same.

I noticed that when Kielder became operational kettles did not fur up as quickly as previously, and bathwater had less "scum" on it. I was not brewing before then, I must have started about the same time as Kielder became operational, hows that for good timing!

The conversation I had at Sunderland came about when I first started filtering water in the early 1990's, when I was using kits only. The water board were always mucking about with the pipework in this area, the water tasted terrible for a while, that is why I bought a jug type water filter, I did not even think about using it for brewing when I bought it. I commented that after filtering water when I first brewed with it that I found it slightly "soft", he recommended that I should try adding gypsum to my water to see if it helped, next brew I tried it and it was ok. I suppose this was my first venture into experiments, before then I religously stuck to the kit instructions.

In answer to your question (At Last!) I would say my water is moderately hard, even after filtering my kettle still furs up, but only slightly and I only have to clean it infrequently.

[Andy]

I didn't think (carbon) filtering had any effect on reducing carbonates in water which cause the element furring or limescale as I experience darn sarf. My filter removes the chlorine but leaves the carbonates in the water so I now add Brupaks CRS to zap those.

[BlightyBrewer]

I've just bought myself a Culligan filter set-up for £28. I'm going to set it up so that I can plug the garden hose line into it (the same I use for my counterflow cooler).

[Frothy]

Do you mean
- using water filters to filter brew water and remove chlorine?

or

- using water filters to filter homebrew?

The activated carbon water filters (such as the white inline one) are great for filtering out chrorine but not cleanable or designed for filtering lots of particles.

Jeremy Wallis of the Pensans brewery has been using cartridge water filters with 2micro meter pores to effect with the advantage that it is possible to dissasemble them to remove crud. Also there are carbon inserts available for the same units.
http://www.chezwallis.com/pensans/keggi ... index.html


Can buy from here - http://www.h2onics.co.uk/water-filter.html

[eskimobob]

Thanks for the link Frothy, that is what I have been looking for. I am interested in filtering before my Cornies to try and get a clearer beer that I cn transport without worrying about stirring up any deposit.

What grade filters do you use; I have read that 5 micron is adequate without removing body.

[Andy]

That pensans site is a new one to me, some interesting stuff on there!

I love his brewing plumbing setup!

http://www.chezwallis.com/pensans/brewi ... to003.html

:blink:

[eskimobob]

Talk about Frankenstein's Monster

[BlightyBrewer]

Feck me that's insane!! :blink:

[BlightyBrewer]

Here's my insane water filter set up. Allows me to plug in my water line from the outside tap into both the water filter and the counterflow cooler using the same hose.

[eskimobob]

Nice stand - portable...