Brewed up an Old Ale today and overshot my numbers big time. Was looking for a 1.090-1.093 and boiled down to a 1.105. Without thinking it through, I opened up a sealed, brand new gallon bottle of store-bought (Walmart) distilled water and added just shy of 1/2 gallon to my primary fermenter (before aeration) to get a 1.099 adjusted OG.
My question is not about the numbers but rather about the water. I know this sounds like such a newb question but will I be okay with that distilled water addition in terms of sanitation fresh out of the bottle? I have not done that in years (I usually will just top off during the boil)…Thanks for the insight!
It will be completely beer sanitary. Sometimes we way, way, way over-worry about sanitation. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But stuff like bottled water is sanitary enough for beer, no problem. Things like aluminum foil, plastic bags, paper towels, bottled water are all sanitary enough for clean beer fermentation.
I’ll rephrase - bottled water is sanitary enough, barring some screwup at the plant. I’ve done it plenty of time myself. Easy fix for those windy days with too much boil-off.
You can certainly squirt it with star san if it makes you feel better but it it pointless. It’s sanitary. So are plastic zip lock style bags. Really, beer infection can happen from wild organisms in the air, but mostly it will come from grain dust or a spot you miss cleaning over and over again that allows actual beer spoiling microorganisms a chance to set in and grow. And beer spoiling microorganisms are not on foil., or in bottled water.
It’s like, years ago, I remember someone worried about their beer getting infected because they had a cold. I try to explain to them that beer can’t catch a cold. But not sure if that really sunk in or not.
Same here. Using foil right off of the roll is perfectly safe. And with regard to bottled waters (whether distilled, spring, or purified), I believe that most bottled waters nowadays probably get a UV treatment at bottling, the way many of the better non-heat pasteurized farm ciders do. I’ve only topped up with bottled water very infrequently, but whether it is UV treated or not, it has never posed a problem or caused infection.
