Tap water, or filtered, or distilled?

[coolfinie]

The title says it all.

Where I live the tap water is not all that heavily chlorinated, but it is chlorinated enough so that it bothers me.
then there's the fluoride. Dublin council members had a vote about removing fluoride a year ago but I never heard any more about that so maybe it is, and maybe it isn't fluoridated now.

So I started to look at alternatives for brewing my beer. It looks like if you don't want tap water as it comes, then reverse osmosis filtering or distilling are the way, but a simple Britax jug type filter makes the chlorine taste go away.

What are people who brew a lot using?

[DEMPSEY]

Hi welcome to the club. I see your from south side Dublin so your water is soft as it comes from the mountains. You can deal with the chlorine by boiling off the water or just fill containers and leave them open overnight and will vent off.Chloramines  can be treated with cambden tablets with 1 tablet to deal with approx 75 liters so you don't need much.

[Will_D]

Welcome to the site!

In Malahide the water is very chloriney. I use a Proplumb 10" filter with a charcoal/sediment filter to filter my water. Can get them in Woodies and maybe B&Q or a plumbers merchants

[johnrm]

Where do you dispose of used filters Will? Both charcoal and the wound ones

[Will_D]

They go into the black bin

[johnrm]

Is that the landfill bin?

[coolfinie]

I never heard of the trick of using a campden tablet to neutralize chlorine before!
So it looks like a combination of filtering and an occasional campden tablet stirred in will do the job nicely.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[Will_D]

Is that the landfill bin?

Err Yes John

Do I detect a hidden agaenda here??

Am I doing som'at wrong 

[johnrm]

God no, I'm not saying you're killing the planet! ;-)
I have the same problem, I've a bunch of filters that I know will not break down, there has to be a better way to dispose of them.

[Drum]

@Will D.   Would I be right in thinking the filter bed in a charcoal filter is made from finely ground charcoal/ activated carbon? 

If so then then the contents of the filter bed could just be mixed into a compost heap. This would help balance the carbon/nitrogen ratio in a compost which helps with the breakdown of leafy material like used hops.

The plastic casing could then be recyclyed depending on what plastic it is.   

[Will_D]

I'm sure it is. As I am about to change one (its over 60s discount day in Woodies so will save €1.50 on each!) I will take it apart.

I used to save the granules from the Brita water filter to act as track ballast for my models railway! They are just right for Z scale (1 : 220)

[biertourist]

I never heard of the trick of using a campden tablet to neutralize chlorine before!
So it looks like a combination of filtering and an occasional campden tablet stirred in will do the job nicely.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Yep, agree with what everyone has said so far. You're pretty lucky on the water source.

You should probably use EITHER charcoal filtration OR camden tablets.  -Both is probably unnecessary but if you go the filter route be sure to run the water SLOWLY -it takes contact time to neutralize chlorine-target a 2 liters per minute max flow rate.

Camden is so cheap and easy; Charcoal filtration is more expensive but can also help neutralize some other minor issues and help with water problems that might show up any time there's a bit of flooding.  --I remember the crazy flooding in Dundrum 4-5 years ago and they MASSIVELY increased the chlorine rates right after that to ensure that the water was sanitary.  -If you charcoal filter still smell the water and if you get any chlorine off notes, then go ahead and crush up a camden tablet and add it to your HLT water; in general you only need one and not both, but when chlorine rates spike you could theoretically need both.

-If you're brewing with a phenolic yeast strain-anything belgian or German Hefeweizen strains, then I'd take my chlorine treatment even a bit further and I might do both carbon filtration AND camden treatment because phenolic yeast strains + chlorine = "plasters" / nasty plastic flavor that's intense and awful.


Adam