Water for brewing

There are four important ingredients for brewing beer: barley, hops, yeast and water. Most home brewers start out making beer kits and when the instructions say add water, the natural reaction is to reach for the tap.

Tap water

It’s drinking water so you should be able to use it for making beer right? Well, you can but there is a but. To keep your water safe, the water companies generally add Chlorine or Chloramine to the water. This is something you don’t really want in your beer as it can cause plasticky, medicinal or band-aid type off-flavours. The best way to avoid this is by adding about half a Campden tablet per 5 gallon / 23 litres to the tap water. This converts the chlorine or chloramine into harmless salts. It happens very quickly, meaning you can use the water straight away. But, if you don’t like the mineral content of your tap water, there are other options.

Water filters

Some brewers use a Brita water filter. This removes a lot, but not all of the chlorine and it’s slow. If you have the time and space, leaving the filtered overnight will let the remaining chlorine to disappear into the atmosphere. The water should be covered with a clean cloth and not sealed in a container for this to work. Some brewers say their water needs no treatment at all, I say, they are very lucky.

Mineral Water

Another option is to use bottled water from the super market. If bought in larger quantities it can be a relativity cheap way of getting good quality water. It should be noted that tap water is always going to be the cheapest option.

Reverse Osmosis Water

Sometimes called empty water RO water can be made at home using multistage filter systems from online retailers like Amazon. In the UK there is a rapidly growing company called Spotless Water. They can provide RO water at a much lower price than supermarket mineral water. Their target market is window cleaners, car detailers and solar panel cleaning companies. Because their water is so pure, it leaves no streaks when it dries. However, they also say the water is great for aquariums and home brewers. The caveat is that all of the minerals have been removed from the water (thus empty water). This probably isn’t a issue for using it to make beer with beer kits. If you are an all-grain brewer, you will want to (and probably be very happy you that can) create a water profile that suits the style of beer you are brewing. You can add the salts back in the exact quantities you desire. RO water is what I use at Farnbrewer having tried many options. If you like this way of doing things you can get some free credit on your spotless water account by using my referral code spotless56708 and going to https://www.spotlesswater.co.uk/
I also get a credit on my account so it’s a win-win.

Summary

Good water is an often-overlooked ingredient in brewing. Tap water can be treated with Campden tablets, while filtered, bottled or RO water offer other options. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your water and how much control you want over its mineral profile.