Newbie q - bottled v tap water

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GHW

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Question for the more experienced brewers here.

How much difference does using bottled water make vs using tap?

My main objection to using bottled is that I'm looking at doing an extract kit next which will be around £25, and to get the 20+ litres bottled needed the overall price of the brew will be pushing £30 or more. You can get decent commercial brews for £1.25 per 500ml in tesco, so I start to question the value of brewing my own at that cost (though of course it's not really about saving money).

What do people reckon?
 
I have always used tap water and had no issues with it,
if you do use the bottled water get the 5ltr bottles so u have free DJ's after you've emptied them.

hope it helps
:hat:
 
Top tip!

Will stick with tap for the first few brews then at least I've got something to compare to. The waters pretty good her
 
I filter my water with a Brita jug to remove the chlorine and hard minerals. I believe adding campden tablets (about £4 from wilko) will remove the chlorine but not the other minerals
 
Using the brita must take a while for 20L?
Think I have one lurking in the cupboard somewhere. I knew it would get some use at some point!
 
I'm in the Thames Valley and just pre boil for 15mins and add 1tsp of citric acid for the mash liquor. For sparging I just add 1/2 tsp citric acid and 1 campden tablet. Most commercial brewers use mains water.
 
I only ever used tap water but the difference must depend greatly on the water coming out of your tap. BTW its not illegal to bottle and sell tap water so cheap "spring water" is likely to be from a bottling plant in an area the tap water comes from a spring. I think most commercial breweries are either in an area the water profile suits there beer or they treat it with chemicals to adjust it to the beer they want.
Thats the extent of my knowledge anyway and could be wrong
 
I guess it's not going to to be the main thing that affects the taste anyway. Will stick with the tap for now and might give it the brita treatment. Can't hurt!
 
I fitted one of those under sink water filters a few years ago (Pozzani IX600). Simple to fit, no plumbing knowledge required. Filters cost about ~£13 every 6 months but tbh, they're rated for ~10,000 litre and I normally change mine yearly.

We drink a lot of tap water and make a lot of home made soup etc. in my house and although there's nothing wrong with our ordinary tap water (central Scotland) it just feels better using the filtered water.

Needless to say, now that I've started home brewing, it's even more useful :-D
 
Just to note, most of the northern UK, Wales and Ireland are soft water while Southern UK including London is hard water areas. This greatly affects the taste and impurities in the water. I'm lucky in Belfast that I have very low impurities (8-10 ppm) but I suspect some of you will have pretty poor tasting water. Not a solution but something to think about.

ukwatermap.jpg
 
I'm a newbie myself but I've read vast amounts, much of it here at HBF.
As I understand it the danger to beer from tap water isn't so much whether it's hard or soft, it's the chloramines the water companies put in it to avoid contamination.
I forget the science but chlorine and chloramines aren't quite the same thing, and the chloramines can taint the beer with an unpleasant chemical 'twang'.
The large majority of home brewers will always add half a campden tablet or a pinch of potassium metabisulphite to their brewing water (unless it's bottled) as this neutralises these chloramines.
If you do go the bottled route then Everyday Value or Smart Price water at just 17p per 2l bottle is perfectly good for brewing and by far the cheapest. You won't get a free plastic 5l dj but the 2l empties are quite adequate as beer bottles.
 
Hello, been lurking for a bit, but brewing for a dozen years. Couldn't help but respond here. For extract brewing, as long as the tap water meets health codes and tastes OK, its fine for brewing. No need to spend on bottled water. As someone else pointed out, it may just be someone else's tap water. +1 on the use of Campden tablets if you are concerned about chloramines.

Only if you go to all grain do you need to worry about your water, and then really just to inform your pH control and use of brewing salts.

Good luck!
 
I use 1/2 crushed campden tablet per 5 gallons of brewing water and it dechlorinates it straightaway. Easy, cheap and convenient.
 
I only ever used tap water but the difference must depend greatly on the water coming out of your tap. BTW its not illegal to bottle and sell tap water so cheap "spring water" is likely to be from a bottling plant in an area the tap water comes from a spring. I think most commercial breweries are either in an area the water profile suits there beer or they treat it with chemicals to adjust it to the beer they want.
Thats the extent of my knowledge anyway and could be wrong

Actually I think it is illegal to sell bottled tap water. In the uk.

It is why restaurants cannot charge for tap water.
Mars got stopped from doing that a few years ago.
 
in Swansea the water is soft, but about two years ago I noticed a thin film on the top of a cup of tea would form, they have treated the water and it doesn't disappear so it must be those chloro-wotsits?

I get supermarket water bottled from the chase spring.

spring water isn't really tap water, that's sold as bottled water... see link for details.

https://www.gov.uk/food-standards-labelling-durability-and-composition#bottled-water

I'd rather use a purer water to start with than add a tablet to neutralise water impurities. I'm building up a table of different waters in the supermarket as some have more minerals in them than others.:-o
 
My old thread resurrected.

I never did get round to using the brita...can't say my brews have suffered, though maybe they'd be better if I had bothered...

Off topic & @ doj, don't know whereabouts in Swansea you are, but do you know if they still have the crazy golf in singleton park? I used to love that as a kid, on the way home (I'm from near Abergavenny) from a day trip to Oxwich bay. Might take my kids there for a bit of nostalgia if they do!
 
My old thread resurrected.

I never did get round to using the brita...can't say my brews have suffered, though maybe they'd be better if I had bothered...

Off topic & @ doj, don't know whereabouts in Swansea you are, but do you know if they still have the crazy golf in singleton park? I used to love that as a kid, on the way home (I'm from near Abergavenny) from a day trip to Oxwich bay. Might take my kids there for a bit of nostalgia if they do!

yes they do, and the one in Mumbles is still there. speaking of which the mumbles lighthouse hole was like a painting, I hope they haven't painted it the garish colours some of the others holes have been painted! - I cycle past it 1 or 2 times at week on the way to work at can see the bright colours from the prom.


they have boats like giant swans on the lake/pond at well....

http://www.swansea.gov.uk/article/2399/Singleton-Boating-Lake

not open yet unless you have your own golf balls and putters :-)

What you won't have seen in the swansea bay rider, it's a wheeled 'train' that goes along the bay, I'm sure the kids would love than when it starts back up at Easter?

http://www.swansea.gov.uk/bayrider

p.s. I love abergavenny, there is a great coffee shop down the lane from the old burtons store - neville street? I used to get our daihatsu serviced in abergavenny, so spent a day there each year for a few years. I used to drool over the food on display in the lazy days cafe in frogmore street.

getting back to beer, the pliot in mumbles is now a microbrewery and they did one called 'the mumbles mile' which was the best session ipa I've ever tasted. I'll have to pop in and ask them about that as I haven't seen it there for a while.
 
That coffee shop is the Trading Post I think, it's still there, or at least a cafe is. Good cake.
Haven't been down Swansea/gower for 3 or 4 years now. Must make a effort this summer! Not beer related either, but joes ice cream in mumbles is also awesome!

And I do have all my own crazy golf kit!
 

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