boiling water ?

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blinkey

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I know its proba newbie question..but i am and ya prob bored of answering it but y do we have to boil water when making / topping up wine?? (or is it ok to use filtered or bottled water instead ) :?:
 
I now use bottled water when making or topping up wine. Seems ok to me so far.
 
The simple answer to the question, you boil the water to kill off any bugs in it which might turn your gallon or more of wine to which you have devoted many hours into vinegar.

Filters are good at removing dissolved chemicals and solids but bacteria can live on the filters (if we're talking of the brita kind and not 10M Ohm sterile filters for labs or even the strerile filters many breweries use). Bottled water should be ok, but it can never be guarnteed that the bottling plant didn't have some bacteria floating around on it, hence the slightly odd idea of best befores on bottles, though if the plant uses a sterile filtering process you shouldn't have any problems.
 
I top up with bottled water quite regularly, or grape juice after racking if I want it to ferment a bit more or to sweeten after stabilising.

If you are topping up after a 2nd racking when your wine has cleared, you can use a similar and previously finished wine.

If mixing up a country wine must, there is usually either boiling or campden tablets involved.

However, if mixing up a juice wine I may sometimes use bottled water but mostly I take it straight from the cold tap.
 
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