I am considering a whole house unit for many reasons, but one would be to collect and treat RO for specific brewing water applications. How many of you start with RO and adjust from there? I have been using mostly bottled spring water (RO with mineral additions near as I can tell from the supplier’s website) and have been happy to adjust minimally for Burton water or other changes, but just wondering how many folks start with RO as their SOP.
I have terribly hard base water, using a softener to get relatively okay water, but sodium loaded, of course. So without an RO, I would be making only dark beers if I used my water without treatment.
Being from the Midwest, the water is pretty much crap here in terms of brewing most beers. I use RO water filled from water machines at local stores in conjunction with Bru’nWater, which is excellent. I highly recommend it if you don’t use it.
I have been brewing with RO water for about 4 years. My tap water is very hard, and has very high alkalinity. The RA for my water is 200. That makes brewing a Pilsner a challenge.
RO water, gypsum, CaCl2, lactic acid, phosphoric acid, baking soda, and pickling lime are the most used tools. To lower or raise the pH. I might use Epsom salt on occasion, but not much these days.
I highly recommend Brunwater and a gram scale, 0-100 gram range, if you want to really adjust RO water.
Edit - my village has wells. The other towns to the east in the area get the water sourced from Lake Huron. It is not very hard, and has manageable alkalinity. Just saying that water from the Great Lakes is good stuff here in the Midwest.
+1 to the scale to be able to adjust water to what you want. I use this one for hops and water salts - it’s affordable and works really well : Amazon.com
Another +1 to Bru’n Water. Since I started using RO water and Bru’n Water my beers have improved over using my tap water. I donated and got the upgraded version which is really nice and very easy to use.
As for a scale, I reload a lot of my ammo and my Hornady Lock N Load bench scale works great. Probably a little overkill for measuring brewing salts, but you should be able to find an inexpensive one, like the one mentioned above.
My beers also begin life as RO water and build the profile with Bru’n water. The water here is nasty and unreliable. It’s full of chloramine, tastes awful and varies with the seasons because it’s all ground water. Even local pro brewers using the muni water with filters have some of the same off flavors in their beer that I used to find in mine when I used the local water supply. I think they use RO filters so I’m not sure why their can’t get the water as clean as the RO water I buy but if I were them I would figure that one out.
All you need is Bru’n water and a gram scale, plus the very cheap water additives. I’ve used other water adjustment software in the past but didn’t find it nearly as effective as Bru’n water. None of the other options I tried adjusted for the grain and they only gave you the historic water profiles to target. I really like that Bru’n water gives plenty of options to hit a general profile based on color and malt/bitterness. I have good success using those general profiles for 95% of my beers.
I always brew with 100% RO water, and use Brun’ Water. What with the chlorine and changing sources during the year I figured it would be best. Sometimes it is a bit of a pain getting all the water I need into the HLT if I start too late.
I’m all RO now also and had the same problem. I used to put my RO output i my boil kettle and when full switch to my HLT. Of course sometimes it would overflow and make a mess in the garage if I was away when it was full or forgot to check in it.
So I took one of those 20ish gallon plastic wine fermenters and turned it into a reservoir with a float valve and weldless bulkhead/spigot. Works great. Next upgrade will be to mount it higher so I can use gravity to fill the HLT instead of having to pump
I have a big pressure tank for my RO. It also supplies the tap at the kitchen sink and the ice maker. For 10 gal batches, the 20 gal pressure tank is just sufficient to supply the water needed. In general, a pressure tank needs to be twice the size of your demand. You folks using an open tank are good to go with a tank sized equal to your demand. You are more efficient with your RO system output too!
I hear from a lot of brewers that prepare a single large batch of water for the entire batch’s needs. I’ve always prepared and heated separate batches for the mash and the sparge. Even when I had only a single pot for heating the water! All it takes is planning. There is no extra equipment needed. This also allows me to focus on the unique needs of the mashing water chemistry. Sometimes it needs a little alkalinity, while sparging water never does. Two batches of water work for me.
Thanks, Martin! I have just ordered a system with a 20 gallon accumulator, based on a friends suggested brand on the internet. I will shortly be joining your paid group and making awesome water! I figure this system will pay for itself in a little over a year based on my bottled delivery water consumption in the past for my household. Hopefully the plumbing is not too daunting…my friend can help, so I am not too worried.
This forum is great to give me the confidence to do these things. Thanks, again.