My water is a bit on the alkaline side and if I make StarSan with my tap water it doesn’t last very long before getting cloudy and slimy. I used to buy distilled water for about $1 per gallon and use that to mix StarSan, and it would last a long time. Lately distilled water has been very hard to find and the price has shot up. My wife needs it for her CPAP machine and today I had to drive to the next town and finally found some for $2.59 a gallon. I gave up on using it for StarSan when it became scarce. I now mix 1/2 gallon batches with tap water and toss it after a couple of weeks. That is cheaper than buying distilled water at these rates. I am considering buying a small water distiller. Although the payback time would be long at least we would have a guaranteed supply.
I use RO water at about 10 ppm. The mix lasts a long time.
I used to buy distilled water as well. But like you said, it became scarce. I looked into distillation but the cost of the machine and operating cost was prohibitive. So, I cobbled together a very affordable RO system with a sediment filter, a carbon filter, and RO membrane.
I am getting 1 gal in 18 min @ about 14 ppm thru it. Tap is 140 ppm.
I use the filtered water in the coffee maker, ice maker, humidifier, cat’s watering bowl, and in the brewery.
Prior to using the RO filtered water I tried tap water in the humidifier. It wasn’t long before I was blowing white powder and leaving white residue in the machine. I don’t have that issue now.
My tap water is fine, in fact excellent, for drinking, cooking and making beer. It just doesn’t work great in a CPAP machine or for making StarSan. An RO system would be overkill for me, but a very small water distiller might be worthwhile. There are some available for $60-$100 that can produce 1 liter/hr, which would be enough.
good note on prices south of the border, i can still easily get a gallon for a dollar here.
consider using iodophor? i mix just 750ml at a time when needed and it must be about 50 cent per brew and just use tap water.
i used to use starsan with tap water in a different country and yeah i got the stringy things in it and would just dump them after a while.
i started brewing with iodophor, tried starsan, and have gone back to iodophor. fwiw the only infected brew i ever had was while using starsan. i live with iodophor.
fyi
If you search Amazon for “distilled water maker” there are several.
It’s no big deal for me, mix 1qt at a time in a spray bottle, and lasts several weeks.
I measure 1.48 ml/cc using a syringe for a quart spray bottle.
Iodophor is also used with “cold” tap water, at no rinse concentration, a quart rarely two for cleaning day.
Iodophor 1 ml/cc per quart.
After everything is cleaned and rinsed with Iodophor it air dries on a white towel. On brew day
everything is reassembled and sprayed with StarSan.
Cheers
Finx a store that sells water softeners (kike Culligan, etc) and get your water there. They have robust RO systems there and you can but your brewing and water for sanitizer there. I get mine from an outfit called Clearwater and I can buy 5 gallons for $1.50.
Like Brewsbam, I also have an RO and put an 8 gallon pressure tank on it so that I could have brewing water available. But it taxes the system when getting enough for the brew day and I tryn to accommodate my wife since we use it for drinking water and cooking. So I only draw water from it for mixing sanitizer. I use Saniclean (it doesn’t foam like StarSan but is but is basically the same thing) and it lasts for a few months before I have to mix up new. Plus, it only takes about 10 minutes to fill a five gallon jug at Clearwater, instead of starting a day or two days ahead to get enough water for the brew day.
Goose, thanks for the suggestion. After reading this I realized that my local grocery store, which doesn’t have any distilled water inside, has a water filtering machine outside. I never paid it much attention, but I will take a closer look next time I am there. We only need a gallon every few weeks for the CPAP and less than that for StarSan.
There are reports of the water from that of machine being not so great. Many people who use those machines check the water with a TDS meter to be certain.
Yes, a TDS meter is not expensive and will tell you about the quality in ppm. Often the machine hasn’t been serviced in a while, do higher TDS then just after servicing.