RO Water

[Opus 27]

I produce my own Reverse Osmosis (RO) water to -1ppm for aquarium use.

I\'m curently trying it for two 25L sugar washes with Still Spirits Triple Distilled yeast.

Start SG was 1.090 Fermentation would seem to be slower than when I used straight tap water. At 10th day now SG is 0.986 and still fermenting.

I\'ve also been using RO water for cutting from 60% ABV back to 40% ABV.

Being a new boy to this hobby I\'ve only done two washes previously with tap water so probably haven\'t enough data to compare.

Has anyone else had experience with RO water and is it going to be as good as distilled water for cutting.

[Phantom]

Don\'t know Opus, but I\'d be grateful if you could post any info you have about where you got the RO filter from as I\'d like to get one for my fish as well (the local fish shop charges about £3.50 for 25 litres).
I was going to get some over this weekend as I\'ve got a couple of batches of mead to get on the go - and in my area the water is very hard/high calcium (not forgetting as it get into the growing season, that the phosphate levels increase as well).
At 0.986, I\'d think that it\'s probably not fermenting, rather than de-gassing itself naturally. I tend to do all of my sugar washes with tap water at the moment.......... but I don\'t really bother to do actual gravity tests, I just leave it to finish itself - rather than the 7 days suggested by SS, I tend to leave it for about a fortnight, then fine it, but again, rather than just the 24 hours, I leave it at least a couple of day, sometimes for a week.
Oh and I always add a tiny capful of the distillers conditioner - and haven\'t had any \"burps\" from the still since starting to do that!

[Opus 27]

Hi Phantom,

I got my RO Unit at my local aquatic store (in Gloucestershire) \"Aquajardin\". They have however got other branches, that said they are available direct from RO MAN.You will find them on the Web.

Mine is a RO MAN 50GPD. I paid about £100 or may be a bit less 2 years ago. I use about 100L a week in my tanks. A point worth noting though, you need a reasonable mains water pressure. mine is only about 3 bar at times so I have had to boost with a pump. I now run at 7 bar which appears to be the optimum for efficient production. This is obviously an added cost. The other extra that is worthwhile is an in-line TDS meter. The final point to note is that I am fortunate not to be on a water meter as final product is about 20% of water used.

Apologies to every one else for posting non distilling comments.

[Phantom]

Ok Opus, that\'s great. I don\'t think that there\'s an \"Aquajardin\" around here. I have a number of branches of \"Maidenhead Aquatics\" (they seem to have done some sort of deal with the Wyvale Garden Centre\'s chain).
It should be enough info to track something down. The water pressure is quite good here, but as long as I can get between 10 and 20 gallons per week, that\'d be fine and as we\'re not on a water meter, it\'s not an issue - I actually toyed with the idea of getting a 200 gallon \"chemical dumpy\" and using that to store the \"waste\" water.
It\'s just an idea really, I normally just use treated tap water for the fish (fancy goldfish and cold water tropicals - nothing special), and I have the facility to make enough distilled water for actually making my wines and meads - an RO filter would just make life a little easier.

[Opus 27]

The first difference thats apparent is the odour of the completed wash. It\'s a far cleaner wine smell than I got from my previous two tap water washes, actualy quite pleasant.

[Phantom]

The first difference thats apparent is the odour of the completed wash. It\'s a far cleaner wine smell than I got from my previous two tap water washes, actualy quite pleasant.

Now that\'s interesting to hear! I got 25 litres of RO from the "fish shop" yesterday, though the aim was more about getting 2 batches of mead on the go, than another batch of wash - I\'ve got another bucket that I could use but until we\'ve done the weekly shop on wednesday, I\'m running a little low on sugar.
I\'ll probably make another batch up with the RO after then (possibly next weekend).
TVM for the tip.

[Opus 27]

Unfiltered the distillate doesn\'t smell any better than when I used tap water. Any perceived advantages to RO water are rapidly disapearing.

Any change after filtering won\'t be relevant as I\'m starting with my new Z Filter where I previously used the small funnel type with the solid carbon cartridge.

[Opus 27]

Contrary to my last post, my son is convinced that the odour of the distilled spirit is definately cleaner than tap water?

[Phantom]

Unfiltered the distillate doesn\'t smell any better than when I used tap water. Any perceived advantages to RO water are rapidly disapearing.

Any change after filtering won\'t be relevant as I\'m starting with my new Z Filter where I previously used the small funnel type with the solid carbon cartridge.

No, I follow that, but I\'m thinking along the lines that it might be better to use RO water if you have it available as it\'s quite feasible that you could be getting "cleaner" wash.
Once it\'s been through the still you\'d have removed a fair amount of it anyway, so it\'d probably be quite different to differentiate.
Also, I\'m not convinced that I get any better filtration with my Z filter.......the only bonus being that it\'s much easier to re-filter/put it through a number of times..........
In fact I\'m gonna run the batch I\'ve got at the moment through the Z filter before I water it down to 40% and re-distil it just in case anything has got through.....

[Opus 27]

Tell you what Phantom, either the RO has made one hell of a difference or the Z filter has. I\'ve put 10 Litres through once today and all though I want the spirit for flavouring I could drink it as it is. it\'s clean smooth vodka. I\'m putting it through a second time now. By the way I cut back to 40-42% before I filtered.

[umpa]

I have used RO water all the time, i have a 5 stage domestic 100G per day system with holding tank. You fit a faucet on the sink and have fresh RO on command. much better than the usual drip drip of an normal ro machine.
For my aquarium i have it go through a di resin pod that cleans up any that gets by the membrane. The tank stores about 3.5 gallon, so when doing a 5 gallon wash it filles it about 3/4 of the way before the tank empties and i have a slow dribble.
I get all my stuff from RO-MAN.com

[Phantom]

Cheers for the link umpa.
It\'s brilliant. One of the cheap systems (the 35GPD one) would suit me just fine. Plus it\'s gonna give me plenty to look into - because the other day, I was delivering to a place that had a \"chemical dumpy\" of de-ionized water and it got me thinking what the actual difference is between RO, de-ionization and distillation is when talking about water.........
Plus at less than 60 quid, it\'d be money well spent.

[Jimmy]

So what\'s the verdict Opus? To RO or not to RO, that is the question!

[Opus 27]

Without doubt it\'s to RO.

I\'ve just tasted the Clasic Tennessee Whiskey thats only three days old and it\'s clearly better than my earlier batch with tap water. Smells nicer (Bouquet I suppose)

taste is cleaner.

[umpa]

Well or reverse osmosis is a process where by water is pushed through a membrane with microscopic holes in it. The idea is that only h2o molicules will pass through, but as with all mechanical devices there has to be a tollerance and so membranes are rated at 95 to 98% efficient. So we use di resin to soak up the rest.
Di resin works by absorbsion, and does pretty much the same thing, except it\'s not cost effective as it will soon become saturated and inactive.
Sorry about any spelling and typos as I\'m on an iPhone.