Bottled Water?

[Looky Charms]

Hi there,

My water here in Monasterevin is very limey. No idea really how hard it is, but I did see someone on a forum state it was about 250 - 350ppm. All I know is that I had to get a water softener installed cos the shower and washing machine were fecked.

So my question; Is this water bad for brewing with? I know from limited reading that some calcium is desirable, but is too much undesirable?

Lidl, Supervalu and Tesco all sell 5 litre bottles of water for €1.29. Would this be any good to brew with as an alternative to my tap water?

Cheers!!

[mr hoppy]

Generally, bottled water will have a chemical composition analysis on the label. Some have relatively ok compositions - the ones you want to keep away from are the ones with higher levels of bicarbonate - some are very high.

[Looky Charms]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm a complete newbie at this, so how high is too high for bicarbonate?
Also, is my own hard tap water bad for brewing?

Cheers.

[Eoin]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm a complete newbie at this, so how high is too high for bicarbonate?
Also, is my own hard tap water bad for brewing?

Cheers.

If you have a softener then your water is generally not very good for brewing. The unfiltered water you have would probably work well with grainbills that have a high proportion of dark malts, such as stouts or porters. It would not work so well for light beers. If you have a chance to take the unfiltered water then make stouts with it. If you don't have that chance then your tap water will probably make good pilseners and light beers but not good dark beers. Bottled water is just mechanically filtered tap water in most cases so it'll depend on the values on the outside of the bottle, but most of them are alright for making beer with, but they're not anything special.

Buy an aquarium test kit and test your water before and after the filter and post your KH values, then we can give more advice.

[Looky Charms]

Thanks Eoin. Should have said that my drinking water tap doesn't get treated by the water softener, so my drinking water is exactly as it comes from the local supply. Will get an aquarium test kit. Thanks.

[Eoin]

Thanks Eoin. Should have said that my drinking water tap doesn't get treated by the water softener, so my drinking water is exactly as it comes from the local supply. Will get an aquarium test kit. Thanks.

How is it softening water if it is not ehh softening it? The water must be treated or it's not softened. Generally an RO system or a salt based system.

[Looky Charms]

I have a drinking water tap coming direct from the mains before the water goes to the water softener. I didnt fancy having to drink such high sodium water.

[RichC]

LC I've a softener too and the water is terrible for brewing. Had pH and efficiency issues. I now just use RO for brewing. Some of the bottled waters are very soft and are best treated as RO. checkout AJ Delanges brewing water chemistry primer on homebrewtalk and treat accordingly

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