RobInPort
Apprentice
Rainwater use - water conservation, cleaning, and brewing ideas welcome.
I am just getting back into brewing after many years. In the previous brew life, I had access to treated water from a municipal water supply. So, no real issues with cleaning and adding my top off water to the fermentation tank. The water was City of Austin in Texas and you could see the minerals floating around in it - very hard water.
Things are a little different now. I am in rural Australia on untreated rainwater. What goes in the tank comes out. There isn't anything wrong with the water - we drink it all the time. However, since we don't treat the water at all, there may be some things in the water that will fall in love with my wort.
Some things I have already considered:
For now I am not planning to treat the rain water to build a custom water profile for brewing. I thought for the first few batches I would use what comes out of the tap and see how the brew goes.
Cheers,
Rob
I am just getting back into brewing after many years. In the previous brew life, I had access to treated water from a municipal water supply. So, no real issues with cleaning and adding my top off water to the fermentation tank. The water was City of Austin in Texas and you could see the minerals floating around in it - very hard water.
Things are a little different now. I am in rural Australia on untreated rainwater. What goes in the tank comes out. There isn't anything wrong with the water - we drink it all the time. However, since we don't treat the water at all, there may be some things in the water that will fall in love with my wort.
Some things I have already considered:
- boil all water that will end up in the beer for my top off water into the fermentation tank (boiled in advance and allowed to cool);
- wort chiller with a submerged pump in an esky with ice water to recirculate the chill water (I used to tie into the house and run tap water through my old chiller - water was cheap and plentiful in the other life);
- cleaning with cleaner and hot water (we have solar hot water - it gets HOT; hot enough to kill the little bugs from the tanks); and
- no rinse sanitiser - reduces water usage and less reason to rinse with the untreated water
For now I am not planning to treat the rain water to build a custom water profile for brewing. I thought for the first few batches I would use what comes out of the tap and see how the brew goes.
Cheers,
Rob