Hard or soft water

[Gibbo]

Does water hardness truly affect the finished product?

What is recommended for the different Brewprints?

Does filtered water have a place in brewing?

[Patty]

G'day Stuart, found this if you want to read up on how chlorine and yeasts and all that affect the brew.

 

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/esters-and-phenols-in-beer/

[Duffman]

The advice I got from BrewArt was that if you can drink it, you can brew with it. I'm using Adelaide's notorious water but none of that taste has ever made it into my final result.

[Deeks]

I just use tap water and my beers have turned out fine.

I have heard that some people use bottled water so I guess you can try that if you want an extra premium beer.

[Gibbo]

My post is hidden? Apparently I couldn't quote your message Patrick. Took it out, post is below.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Stuart Gibson
clarification

[Gibbo]

Great to get the conversation started  

Interesting read Patrick. I am not really talking about the presence of chlorine, but you answered one of the questions posed. I use filtered water to remove the chlorine and other chemicals. I did not have a reason to do this, until now  Plus my filtered water dispenser has a fine spout that I shove a clear plastic tube onto, so I can run it directly into my droid. 

I also agree that if you can drink it, you can brew it.

I recall a scrap of a conversation with a mate in regards to hard and soft water and he was strongly of the opinion the hard water produces better beer. Coincidentally not long after, I was using the gents in a forgotten restaurant in Perth and papered onto the walls was very old print talking about brewing beer. I think it said ales worked best in soft water and lagers (particularly bitters) in hard water (or it could be the other way around) . Perhaps I am in a dream world, but I think you can buy tablets to harden your water for brewing. They might have been calcium carbonate. 

Since this is the 'Advanced Brewing' section I am hoping to bring to light some of the subtler techniques in brewing and quality control.

Has anyone come across this sort of thing before and had a crack at it?

Do the Brewart experts get involved and bestow drops of wisdom or is it just down to the man on the street to crunch this out? 

[Pursya]

$4 for 10 litres of spring water from Woolworths or Aldi.

Not a burden and stores well so ready to rumble when starting a brew.

[Gibbo]

Found this very interesting article

http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/08/24/brewing-water-hard-or-soft/

 

[Gibbo]

Just did some reading on the latest Watercorp quality report.

For the Perth area, unless you live in Yanchep or Two Rocks, the water is quite soft, yet compared globally our chloride levels are quite high.

I found an article on water chemistry and brewing, hopefully the link will be published tomorrow.

[Gibbo]

Also in that link is a link to a listing of the water quality of a few prominent cities.

 

 

[Shane Pfeiffer]

I don't claim to be an expert here, however talking to other brewers there seems to be some concern/affect in relation to the water used. Some mention hardness or softness of water, other mention the minerals in the water. I have not tried any of this to confirm or deny this.

[Captain 3 Droids]

On 30/01/2017 at 9:55 AM, Duffman said:

The advice I got from BrewArt was that if you can drink it, you can brew with it. I'm using Adelaide's notorious water but none of that taste has ever made it into my final result.

Using Adelaide water as well for drinking and brewing but have it run though a single pura filter to remove any impurities and chlorine mainly.

[Dustin Frothman]

Here's my brew water method for anyone that is interested.

$5 food grade jerrycan from Bunnings and Brita filter jug. I'm currently living in Brisbane so filter my drinking and coffee machine water anyway but the cartridges are regularly on special at Woolies or Aldi in a 3 pack. They are good for about 3 months and work out to be around $6 each.

I clean, rinse and then sanitise the jerrycan using sodium percabonate and Stellarsan then fill it over the course of a day or so before starting the new brew.

As my Droid doesn't live in the kitchen nor near a tap, the jerrycan is handy for carting the water over to it and makes filling easy. I prefer the reusable jerrycan to buying the 10L "spring" water (it's not spring water ...) and hoping that it is recycled properly by the council.