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Newbie water question.

T

textbookonewk

Hey folks,

Just getting into home brewing.  I've been doing some research, and from what I understand, I shouldn't use distilled water.  I have O Premium water here at home, which  is not quite distilled but pretty close. My question is that I receive the water with electrolytes in it, will this affect my brewing? Would I be better off swithcing to the regular drinking water?

TIA,
Matt
 
I am not a chemist.

Somtime I pretend to be :p I like the white coat :D

I would say if your tast ok try brwing with it.  I have only every used tap water and never had any problems.  

Just my .02c

Don
 
I use bottled drinking water. It is cheaper than distilled and has a neutral taste.
 
I have got some Gypsum.
I found out it lowers the ph in beers.
Anyone suggest when to actually use it?
I mean which types of beers?

Boogan
 
The best thing to do is to use, from the "Tools" menu, the "Water Profiler"

This tool will help you to match a selected water profile knowing your starting point.

Me,  I just use my tap water.

Fred
 
I use tap water run through a water filter to remove chlorine. I really does well. However, before that, I used plain tap water.  

I reasoned that since I am not a chemist, my beers turn out good, and the water is drinkable before fermentation, then it must be OK!
 
I would suggest using whatever you prefer.  I only use tap and have been told that it doesn't matter what you use as long as you like it.  
 
Water is both an overrated and an underrated component of Beer.  
It is overrated if you are a (and I use the term very loosely) a beginner.  If you are a beginner all you need is a base water, aka drinkable.

It is underrated if you are an advanced brewer.  Water makes up approximately 98% of the beer so it has to have an impact on the beer.  Regional beers were brewed with local water and the brewers learned how to optimize their beers to the local water.  

Just a thought starter

Fred
 
I'm a newby myself, but I can impart some wisdom some others have shared with me.  

The main reason people get particular about water is the minerals dissolved in water can effect mash ph, which is important for all grain, and using water that is too pure can screw up the process.  

Us newbys using malt extract though don't need to care so much.  In fact, your malt extract will contain minerals from whatever water was used to create that malt extract, so starting out with distilled or another form of very pure water isn't such a bad idea after all.  Conventional wisdom seems to be that if your water tastes good it is fine.
 
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