RO water equipment

[Hudson1984]

So, I live in a hard water area and keen to ensure brews come out ok once I start doing AG.

Looking at alot of replies, people suggest RO water.

Anyone have a system at home or are you all buying it from an aquatics shops?

thinking of this: 50gpd 4 Stage Complete RO Reverse Osmosis Unit

or

RO 5 Stage Pumped Reverse Osmosis water filter system - RO5PEW

 

[strange-steve]

The first thing to do is determine if you actually need an RO system, and for most of us in the UK the answer is probably not. Hard water is actually not the problem, it's high alkalinity that can potentially cause issues but apart from extreme cases, this can often be dealt with much more easily with acid additions. Do you have a water report from your supplier? Usually you can get this online.

 

[Hudson1984]

I do have that, but wouldn't know where to start on reading it.

 

[Horners]

Probably also depends on what you are brewing. I find with my London water with moderately high alkalinity most suggested profiles can be easily reached with CRS (carbonate reducing solution) but that said I am considering buying Ashbeck for my next serious crack at a lager. On my own research hassle expense and wastage of an RO system didn't seem worthwhile.

 

[strange-steve]

What you're looking for is a value for alkalinity, or if you can post the report here we can take a look.

 

[Hudson1984]

do see attached

 

[strange-steve]

do see attached

Yeah that report isn't very helpful unfortunately. My advice would be not to worry too much about water just yet, at least until you've got a couple of AG brews under your belt, there are plenty of other more important things to keep you occupied initially.

 

[hemanresu]

Probably also depends on what you are brewing. I find with my London water with moderately high alkalinity most suggested profiles can be easily reached with CRS (carbonate reducing solution) but that said I am considering buying Ashbeck for my next serious crack at a lager. On my own research hassle expense and wastage of an RO system didn't seem worthwhile.

my 2p worth

lager used to be my favourite style and i found i could make good beer with ashbeck
at over a quid for 5l though i found it cheaper (even relatively short term)to go RO

 

[chthon]

Find out how much RO water you really need first, for every brew. It is essential that you use your RO installation regularly.

What I do is tap every week 5l, with the smallest RO filter, good for 7l/hour. For larger amounts you could do this for shorter periods, or buy a system which is slightly larger. I do this instead of tapping every 4 or 5 weeks or even longer.

 

[Horners]

Another option of course for the original poster is to get a Salifert test kit for 6 quidish and take his own alkalinity measurement. I did this originally and it was pretty much bang on the mean of the numbers in my Thames water report.