Intermediate Homebrewing - Pt2 "Equipment"

Here I go over the minimum equipment neccessary to brew, and one or two "nice to have" extras...

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• homebrewing
• beer
• zymurgy
• wort
• fermentation
• hydrometer
• alton
• amber
• waves

[MadLuplin]

I use RO water and add salts back to it. Some of the bottled water has lots of sodium in it. Municipal water will contain chlorine or chlorimines which is bad for the beer. I dumped a few batches of beer out from using my tap water. It tasted fine but made bad beer. If you have well water with a high mineral content then diluting it with Distilled or RO water is advisable.

[OPE08]

I'm not sure how water that tastes fine and smells clear can be blamed for bad beer? (And this subject is getting a bit tedious), but again: distilled water has no positive contribution to beer making, and every authority I have read speaks against it.

R/O filters on the other hand are great! I've seen the R/O setup at Stone Breweries and there is no doubt that it helps make a superior product. My conclusion is the same, if your tap water is deficient use bottled drinking or glacial water.

[OPE08]

Now I CAN understand dilluting high mineral well water with zero mineral distilled water, but what I see in that statement is that you are knowingly using well water that you aren't happy with AND buying distilled, why not just used the bottled drinking water alone? You are right about the sodium levels in some brands, I guess I'm lucky in that respect to live in sodium-fearing California...

Cheers!!

[metalcools]

The only thing I want to know is. How long do you leave all that stuff to soak, and can it make the plastic detearate or hurt it in anyway.

[OPE08]

I would imagine that a bleach dilute CAN hurt plastic, in the long run. But my point is that if you are SURE that you are looking at long term storage, then store it dry.

And, for the record, for short term needs I use Iodophor exclusively. Bleach has the wonderful ability to kill evil beasties AND take care of stains, and in a sealed environment it is still best.

[Homebrew58]

lol... I'll buy that.

[OPE08]

Thats fair. I would find it hard to believe that anyone would have access to distilled but not purified or glacial, or both? If a brewer uses distilled, and is happy with the result, then of course I see no reason to rain on them. Would I recommend it? Never. Nor have I ever seen any authority on the subject recommend it, the opposite actually! So I council against it. And my only question would be: if it was okay with harsh, flavorless water, how would it have tasted with good water??

[Homebrew58]

It all depends on what you have what you need and what you can get locally. I'm not saying its the end all be all for everyone. I believe the statement by Crosisborg was that he uses distilled water and his beer "turns out fantastic." Great for him. You find no need for it and neither do I so great for you and me. Whatever works for folks is fine as long as they like what they make and keep making more of it.

Cheers

[OPE08]

There again, what is the point?? Why use distilled at all if it doesn't provide a positive contribution?? In the end "Purified drinking water" or "Glacial water" provides clean water that has a pleasant taste, distilled water DOES NOT provide a pleasant taste so it is a waste of money...

[Homebrew58]

If you use distilled use it 1:1 with tap or bottled water.