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We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Chloramine in Toronto water
Chloramine in Toronto water
Hi All,
Well I'm about to take the life changing plunge into homebrewing. To those who brew using TO water is the chloramine in TO water bad enough that you must use campden tabs?
Thanks
Well I'm about to take the life changing plunge into homebrewing. To those who brew using TO water is the chloramine in TO water bad enough that you must use campden tabs?
Thanks
"Put another brick in my hookah, Chow Ming, and fetch me fresh silks, I've soiled myself again."
--Franklin Pierce, April 6, 1856
--Franklin Pierce, April 6, 1856
I charcoal filter & it's fine.
Someday I'll actually install a filter on the line to the tap. Right now I'm still using a Brita! (I get it out a couple days before I brew & fill it anytime I'm in the kitchen).
If I'm only using light malts, I'll cut the hardness with some distilled water (up to 50/50). I've never done any other treatment.
Someday I'll actually install a filter on the line to the tap. Right now I'm still using a Brita! (I get it out a couple days before I brew & fill it anytime I'm in the kitchen).
If I'm only using light malts, I'll cut the hardness with some distilled water (up to 50/50). I've never done any other treatment.
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And Derek's beer is excellent!Derek wrote:I charcoal filter & it's fine.
Someday I'll actually install a filter on the line to the tap. Right now I'm still using a Brita! (I get it out a couple days before I brew & fill it anytime I'm in the kitchen).
If I'm only using light malts, I'll cut the hardness with some distilled water (up to 50/50). I've never done any other treatment.
A lot of homebrewers let their tap water sit overnight to remove cholrine, and do nothing else, also with excellent results.
10 gal of filtered/spring water is cheap, use it, you'll never regret it.
We use bottled spring water or RO water to brew our fresh ground gourmet coffee or teas to make it taste as best as it can, why would beer be different? The real taste/fermentation killer in Metro water is fluoride and some chloride derivatives that charcoal does not effect.
We use bottled spring water or RO water to brew our fresh ground gourmet coffee or teas to make it taste as best as it can, why would beer be different? The real taste/fermentation killer in Metro water is fluoride and some chloride derivatives that charcoal does not effect.
Aventinus rules!
- markaberrant
- Seasoned Drinker
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- Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2007 4:28 pm
- Location: Regina, SK
+1 to all of this.pootz wrote:10 gal of filtered/spring water is cheap, use it, you'll never regret it.
We use bottled spring water or RO water to brew our fresh ground gourmet coffee or teas to make it taste as best as it can, why would beer be different?
RO water also allows you to accurately build your brewing water. Those city water reports are typically an annual average - I got a copy of a month by month report for Regina, and it is all over the place... that makes what is coming out of the tap pretty difficult to work with, even if you do treat it.
At some point I wouldn't mind getting an RO system installed in the house, I'm sure it eventually pays for itself. For now, I don't mind the bi-weekly trip to the local water supply store.
RO filters are not all that expensive -- something like this would come in at well less than $300 and last for years for drinking water and brewing. The pre-filters have to be swapped out once every 6 months or a year depending on use for ~$25. You could go with something without the storage tank for less than $200, but water comes out of an RO filter at a trickle -- about 2 or 3 gallons / hour.Bonesey wrote:Hi All,
Well I'm about to take the life changing plunge into homebrewing. To those who brew using TO water is the chloramine in TO water bad enough that you must use campden tabs?
Thanks
One thing about brewing, especially all-grain, with RO water is that you probably want to add some salts back in. Sierra Nevada's secret sauce is a mix of ~ 1tsp gypsum (CaSO4) and .25tsp calcium chloride (CaCl2) for a 5 gallon all-grain batch. Gypsum lowers the mash pH (a good thing) and helps with hop extraction in hop-forward beers, so you can play around with the salts to get a particular flavour profile.
- markaberrant
- Seasoned Drinker
- Posts: 1664
- Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2007 4:28 pm
- Location: Regina, SK
Yes, but they are using municipal water, and from what I recall they are only running it through charcoal and micro filtration, so there is already minerals present. When I brewed a baltic porter there, I don't believe we added any salts. Pretty sure they only add salts to the hoppy beers.fishnerd wrote:Sierra Nevada's secret sauce is a mix of ~ 1tsp gypsum (CaSO4) and .25tsp calcium chloride (CaCl2) for a 5 gallon all-grain batch. Gypsum lowers the mash pH (a good thing) and helps with hop extraction in hop-forward beers, so you can play around with the salts to get a particular flavour profile.
I pulled the salt info from January's Zymurgy, so YMMV The writer seems to suggest that all their water is treated with salts, and the included "Beer Camp" recipes use RO + gypsum and calcium chloride. FWIW, RO + the salts makes for some yummy beer, and my mashing seems to get better results with RO + salts than with RO alone.markaberrant wrote:Yes, but they are using municipal water, and from what I recall they are only running it through charcoal and micro filtration, so there is already minerals present. When I brewed a baltic porter there, I don't believe we added any salts. Pretty sure they only add salts to the hoppy beers.fishnerd wrote:Sierra Nevada's secret sauce is a mix of ~ 1tsp gypsum (CaSO4) and .25tsp calcium chloride (CaCl2) for a 5 gallon all-grain batch. Gypsum lowers the mash pH (a good thing) and helps with hop extraction in hop-forward beers, so you can play around with the salts to get a particular flavour profile.
- markaberrant
- Seasoned Drinker
- Posts: 1664
- Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2007 4:28 pm
- Location: Regina, SK
In regards to that article, the handsome guy with the thick black glasses and black t-shirt with the bags of hops is me. I'll try to get clarification; there was so much information provided over 3 days at Beer Camp, my memory is a little fuzzy.fishnerd wrote:I pulled the salt info from January's Zymurgy, so YMMV The writer seems to suggest that all their water is treated with salts, and the included "Beer Camp" recipes use RO + gypsum and calcium chloride. FWIW, RO + the salts makes for some yummy beer, and my mashing seems to get better results with RO + salts than with RO alone.
You absolutely have to add salts to RO water, but there is no magic amount to use. I dial in my salts for every recipe - I add salts to adjust for mash PH, and then add more salts to the boil to achieve the final water chemistry I want in regards to flavour. Howtobrew.com has a great section on this, including a spreadsheet for doing these calculations.
- markaberrant
- Seasoned Drinker
- Posts: 1664
- Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2007 4:28 pm
- Location: Regina, SK
Hey fishnerd, just wanted to follow up that SN absolutely does not follow the pratice described in Zymurgy. They may add gypsum and/or calcium chloride, it depends on the recipe. For the Baltic Porter we added a touch of calcium chloride to soften things up, but that is it. And they do not use RO water (although they used to, and may again in the future).
I did some nosing around, and it looks like they draw their water from an aquifer, so their water is probably pretty stable to begin with, making it straightforward to monkey around with. Unlike Toronto's ... or Regina's.markaberrant wrote:Hey fishnerd, just wanted to follow up that SN absolutely does not follow the pratice described in Zymurgy. They may add gypsum and/or calcium chloride, it depends on the recipe. For the Baltic Porter we added a touch of calcium chloride to soften things up, but that is it. And they do not use RO water (although they used to, and may again in the future).
*shiver*
I remember the brown sludge from the "water" fountains at my elementary school in Regina.
I like using RO water since Toronto's water is variable (its TDS bounces between 200 and 300), and it gets a pronounced algae funk in the fall.
Cool stuff that you got to go to Sierra Nevada
I'm wondering if it matters which treatment plant and how far you are from the plant regarding the water quality and variability you get here in Toronto.fishnerd wrote:I did some nosing around, and it looks like they draw their water from an aquifer, so their water is probably pretty stable to begin with, making it straightforward to monkey around with. Unlike Toronto's ... or Regina's.
*shiver*
I remember the brown sludge from the "water" fountains at my elementary school in Regina.
I like using RO water since Toronto's water is variable (its TDS bounces between 200 and 300), and it gets a pronounced algae funk in the fall.
Cool stuff that you got to go to Sierra Nevada
I've never had problems using tap water here. It is very consistent in my experience with the exception that chlorine can be noticeable at some times of the year (mind you at a much lower level than any other city I've lived). Whether I leave it out over night, filter it or drop a campden tablet in it the end result is a liquor that works well for the beer I brew. I'm sure there are styles where it isn't ideal, but it doesn't concern me much at this point.