The main ingredient of any beer is, of course, water. We just finished a treatment system for a brewery in Indianapolis & decided to make a video case-study for anyone who is looking to filter their brew water. Andy Meyers, Founder & President of TwoDEEP Brewery along with the president of US Water Systems talk about some of the secrets to brewing great beer. Walks through the owners idea to start a brewery, the engineering of the water treatment system, installation, and operation. Good info for any professional brewer!
Timely topic for me right now. We recently drilled a new well and I knew right off that filtration would be required. Being a well a carbon filter wasn’t necessary but we had low, but noticeable, levels of iron, hydrogen sulfide and manganese to deal with. So after the sediment filter we have an Oxygen Chamber system, a Water Softener and an RO system. Links for each are listed below. The straight well water is used for the Geothermal system and irrigation. After the Oxygen Chamber we have 3 lines feeding both kitchen sinks and the garage wash tub (source for my brew water). The rest of the house has soft water (Hot & Cold) and after that is the RO system that feeds both kitchen sinks and the Fridge. I haven’t had the filtered/RO water tested yet but once I have that data I’ll be able to blend my brew water in a similar fashion as TwoDEEP, just not so elegantly… Cheers!!!
for home, check you local providers-culligan is national. I have their whole house filter and then RO system for drinking. works great-RO TDS always less than 13PPM.
think normal price installed is about $900 - I caught the weak salesman and negotiated it down to $700 installed for the 10gal system. I usually draw 5-gals a day, or over 3-days draw 3-4 gals a day.
For brewery usage, a 3 stage RO system is completely sufficient. 1-micron filter, carbon block filter, and then the RO membrane. If you run a pressure tank, remember that the available capacity is roughly one-half the total volume since half the volume is air. I have a 20 gal and 3 gal set of pressure tanks ganged together and all I can get out for immediate usage is about 10 gal. I have to plan ahead if my brewing efforts will require more than 10 gallons. If you can manage it, discharging your RO into a non-pressurized vessel can improve the efficiency of the treated water throughput by reducing the backpressure on the membrane.