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Water Chemistry

edited November 2014 in Recipes

hi all. Has anyone done any experimentation as to what water to dilute the 95%abv neutral wash with? Does 'soft' water make a difference? Distilled? Filtered? Reverse osmosis? Mineral water? Exotic Italian water? Varying pH? Would appreciate comments thanks.

Comments

  • Distilled I think is best. Cut some with bottled spring water that was enhanced with minerals and instant cloudy hooch.

  • Dustin over at Citrus Distillers loves his RO.

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  • edited November 2014

    I'll see your RO and raise you an RO/DI.

  • Love your work thanks guys

  • +1 for distilled, but RO should give about the same results if you are willing to spring for a filter setup

  • edited April 2015

    Filtered rainwater is what I use. <5ppm TDS

    Typical reverse osmosis salt rejection is 98%, e.g. RO permeate from a 200ppm TDS tap water would be around 4ppm TDS.

    Unless you are making printed circuits or your own laboratory reagents, adding a DI resin column to the back end of your RO stream is a waste of money.

    You can find 5gal/day "under counter" RO systems at big box stores for around $150US.

    Rain falls out of the sky for free.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Distilled. Nothing else here.

  • Given that many people rave about 'branch water', I think if the water is pleasant, and does not have a lot of TDS in it, you will be fine...

    I use tap water sent through a sediment and 3 carbon filers very slowly.. about 1-2 gal/hr... I just took the RO part out of an RO filter unit, but kept the flow limiter.. I ended up with this setup because something with the chlorine/chloramine ruined our RO tank and I assume the membrane... during a kitchen remodel, I found that the water in the tank was band-aid x1000 and the small post-tank carbon filter was trying to do all the work, and didn't do that good of a job of it at that... I will upgrade to a fiberglass tank filled with 1cuft of GAC this year if you have chloramines, they say you should use catalytic carbon...

  • You can filter chloramines out with activated carbon. It just needs a long contact time.
    RO membranes are destroyed by chlorine in the feedwater.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • For you eggheads out there who want to geek out:
    Catalytic carbon vs standard GAC for chloramine removal

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • edited April 2015

    You can buy water from icebergs, its bloody dear. Its (Edit I did have 30) 10 euro for 700ml. Anyone tried diluting with that? I have had an ice cube from the Antarctic and it certainly tastes completely different than any other ice or water I have ever tasted.

  • Depending on where you are, you might be able to find a water lab that has a homebrew water analysis. Usually runs about $20-40usd. With a little web research you can find out exactly what kind of filtration you need. In some cases, it could be nothing.

    And for the super nerds, read the book Water: A comprehensive guide for brewers by Palmer and Kaminski.

    I use RO/DI, but then again, I had the unit from something else, so there wasn't a cost to get it.

  • I built my water distiller, cost me $12 for a kettle to get the element, cheap and easy.

  • @Mickiboi said: You can buy water from icebergs, its bloody dear. Its (Edit I did have 30) 10 euro for 700ml. Anyone tried diluting with that? I have had an ice cube from the Antarctic and it certainly tastes completely different than any other ice or water I have ever tasted.

    According to all of the alarmists in our country, those have all melted now so they won't be available.

  • @Kapea said: For you eggheads out there who want to geek out:
    Catalytic carbon vs standard GAC for chloramine removal

    thanks! that is better than the stuff I found... I am lucky I now live in a city that just uses chlorine now... getting a 1cuft GAC filter..

  • Lots of interesting stuff on that website.
    Joe Bob says, "Check it out!"

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • I read that book by Palmer, it is a fairly technical breakdown of water chemistry and means to correct virtually any water condition

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