Water treatment

[Mash]

A lot of beer brewing starts with water treatment.
This is to give the yeast the best start in live, so that they perform unstressed and return a constant product.

It occurred to me that this is a rarely discussed subject here, so I wonder who is treating the water and if so how?

Do you?

[Icefever]

I've not done it with likker the reason I did it with beer was more for the water profiles of some brewies.

[gaza the instructor]

I use filtered water. I have an online water
filter. It takes out heavy metals and other
nasties.
Does it make a diff ?
Only use it cause I got it init.

[packapoo]

No Mash, another of those things I can't be bothered faffing with

[Easydrinker]

Don't think you will get many sane answers Mash.
I'm not aiming for bio-fuel, but equally don't consider water treatment needed for my spirits.
And Heavy Metal brews are nearly as good as Country and Reggae ones!

Robert.

[packapoo]

[Myles]

Also in beer the water is treated to result in different pH at different steps in the brewing process. Hardness is also a factor.

No point in duplicating what is already available here. Water treatment for brewing

I noted once in passing that many commercial distilleries use de-mineralised water for dilution of the product.

[Mash]

I am blessed with good hard mineral rich water.

We have seen a few stalled washes posted recently. It got me thinking if this is something people should consider in soft/poor water areas?

Demineralised water agreed. Saves it salting out.

[Toper]

Under the Resources Section on the Home Page, Alamanac posted a series of Distilling Booklets in PDF format. One of them is about Water Treatment. I found it very informative and helpful.

[Easydrinker]

I will not "knock" that post or thread.
Copyright seems to have been an issue here.
The issue was sorted by Jimmy.

Robert.

[Mash]

..

No point in duplicating what is already available here. Water treatment for brewing

To quote from the final page ..
Treat Your Water Right
The quality and composition of your brewing water has as much influence on the overall quality of the final product as yeast selection and fermentation temperature. As with many advanced brewing methods, the first time around the block may seem complicated. But as you get more comfortable “customizing” your water, the extra five minutes spent on the calculations becomes as routine as preparing your yeast a few days before brewing. Similarly, you will find that the final product is proof enough that the effort was worth it.

Begs the question .. do you wait until you suspect a problem or risk fixing something that isn't broke?

[Easydrinker]

My own take on this, is a simple how far are you prepared to fiddle with your water?
I am a distiller, not a brewer.
I hold up my hand and say that I believe water will have an effect upon beer.
It possibly has an effect upon a brew destined for distillation too, but I consider the effect to be diluted inversely according to the strength of the finished product.
I will continue with my methods, I sometimes add Sodium bicarbonate to my brews, and that is as far as I wish to go.


Robert.

[Mash]

I get your drift, but is the best product not a result of the best brew. Good water = Happy yeasties.

Someone else said.. Something like..

Anybody can get noise out of a musical instrument. Run your fermentation as if you are a concert pianist.

Thanks RJ