StillSmart

I recently discovered that our local authority (idiots) have been messing around with the water composition and treatment resulting in a changed water composition in our area, just when I'd gotten things sorted out in the brewery

Anyway, I decided to builds myself a 25lt britta type filter with 2 X 25lt fermenters, some waste pipe and some granular carbon I normally use to re-fill my Essencia cartridges.

I added a small solar pump and Bob's my auntie - lovely clean, filtered water on demand for brewing.

It's a bit of a contraption but it works and I'll post a few pics on Friday evening as I'm up to my neck at the moment. I just love Summer time when the ferments can be run on the workshop floor without heaters and I can have them all running to build up a winter stock.

Sounds cool. I didn't realise the water made such a difference in a product that ends up being distilled. Does it mess the taste or effect the yeast?

For sure,I believe that the sometimes discernible,(by smell) chlorine in my mains water affects the yeast in my washes.

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote: chlorine in my mains water affects the yeast in my washes.

AG brewers pre-treat their water.

Just half a Campden tablet is enough to treat 5 gallons and will deal with chlorine and chloramines.

So does boiling. It will also remove temporary hardness too.

All true but I decided to build as I had all the necessary bits and bobs to hand, including the solar pump as I have a few spares, plus it gave me something to do.

I do use Campden tabs when doing AG to kill bacteria and prevent the growth of wild yeasts in the wort.

Campden tablets.

Never felt the need to add sulphite before the yeast. I know a lot do (personally and commercially)

I assume it is too energy intensive to just distill the water?

I was thinking of making a similar contraption using two stainless tubs and fitting the two Essencia filters inside to increase the capacity of the filter.

Another build I seen over on the SD forum was a keg with an outlet at the bottom into a pump, which pumped the liquid up through a piece of 2" pipe that was packed with carbon (with a fine filter at each end to keep the carbon in place) before returning back into the top of the keg, it can be run continuously and could be used for both water or filtering spirit.

I agree carbon filtering is probably the best way.
the inline filters are cheap put one in a tank with a ball-cock. Simple?

For what it's worth I use water from the hot tap for my beer.

Having had one go at collecting rain water for an AGW,which worked well,and the simple fact that it seems to rain here most days of the year,I am considering large scale rain water harvesting for (added) chemical free water.

Robert.

I like this idea. Do you need to collect it fresh?

I'm guessing algae may become a problem with long term storage here,but it is for a wash,so maybe unimportant?
I collected 150 litres into black HDPE water containers during a rainy sfternoon,and used it soon after.

Robert.

Was only thinking that because I known water changes. Stability is normally obtained with a little copper (not good) and cleaning out up is done with chlorine (what we are trying to avoid in the first place)

I've used one of these for ages

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hydro-Under-s ... 27e7c3391e

Easy to fit works well cartridges last at least a year and are cheap to replace

Obviously just for mains water use