Water

[oldskooladdict]

On a previous brew I boiled the kettle and allowed it to cool a little then added it to the fermenter. This was a 15l kit and it took ages, not to mention I had to leave it to cool for a few hours - even in a bath of cold water... so my question is how much difference does it make doing this vs just getting water straight from the tap?

If it's relevent (which I guess it is) I live in the South East, in a hard water area....

I intend to do a 23l kit tomorrow and don't fancy 23 boils of the kettle and waiting for it to cool for eons!

[Ditch]

I'm not even completely clear on what ye asking there, or why ye doing what ye did. Frankly, I just don't recognise the procedure.

I make kits. I use a five gallon Jerry Can for my main water. I put half a, crushed, campden tablet in it. Then I hose in five gallons. Boosh! That's my water. Stone cold and perfectly safe to use. Chlorine killed by the tab'.

Only other water I use is a kettle of boiled, tap water. I use that to rinse the kit can out with.

Ok, I also run some hot tap water into a bowl which I submerge the kit can into, to soften up the contents before opening. But, that never touches my ingredients.

Bottom line is; I see no need for Hot water. Just campden treated.

Does this make sense?

[oldskooladdict]

Never used those tablets. Basically last time rather than putting in cold water straight from the tap I used the kettle in between - hoping the boiling of the water would offer some benefit. The kits I've made before I just used straight tap water though, so perhaps I'm just getting increasingly fussy as I progress lol

[Ditch]

OSA; I'm originally from Portsmouth. Fair guess we'd be working with pretty much the same water? Frankly, I'd say ye were pretty lucky to have got away without Campden, even in my day. Now? Seems little short of a miracle.

My advice would definitely be to pick up a tub of tab's. Couple of quid. Not a problem to use. Having boiled the water would help. But, as ye've found ~ takes for ever to cool down again.

I use cold, Campden treated water. The pint I'm drinking as I type this tastes great. The two batches I'm just off to make now will also be great. I do this quite a bit ( ) My method is Tried!

[barl_fire]

Can't see any benefit boiling it all, especially because the 6 pints or whatever it is you do boil per kit conveniently brings the rest of the wort, that mainly comes direct from the tap, to a suitable temperature for pitching the yeast straight away.
Also boiling de-oxygenates water so you'd have to give alot more attention to aerating proir to pitching your yeast.

If your tap water quality bothers you though I'd suggest looking into going down the still bottled water route, I'm sure there's a load of other threads on here about it.

[oldskooladdict]

Just delved into the water part of the forum, blimey, it's well complicated!

[JayBee]

A 5 litre bottle of stores own brand still water is generally a quid or just under. Not too much extra expense and takes away the worry if your bothered about your tap water.

[oldskooladdict]

.
Brewing with kits needs no water treatment other than to remove chlorine or chloramines. This can be done by adding a crushed campden tablet to the water before mixing it with the kit.

Thats good, just been reading the water report from ml local water board, pretty mental, 4 pages of chemical analysis basically.

The campden tablets, is it always just a case of a specific amount of tablets per specific volume of water? - Or should you vary it based on the Calcium Carbonate in your water? - 120mg/l is what I have according to Essex water board.

[oldskooladdict]

Hmm well the readings don't specifically mention chlorine, about a billion other chemcals, with similar but not the same name. I'll try and find some campden tablets tomorrow. It seems they come in packs of 50 min, bit mad when i only need half for each brew lol. How would I handle a 9l brew?! - not sure how big these tablets are but that's gotta be less than 1/4 tablet!