3 replies to this topic

[MX1]

All I can get in bulk water is Culligan which is RO...I have used that for all my brews so far, but know that it is bad. So today I will purchase some regular bottled water from the local (Belgium) supermarket.Their water gets pretty expensive, so in a 5 gallon batch, knowing that I need over 7 gallons to brew with, would 2,5 gallons of reg water be enuff to overcome the RO water?Tim

[orudis]

Depends on what beer you are brewing and what the mineral content of the bottled water is. Unless you are brewing with extract, you really shouldn't use only RO. But if you are using all extract, RO is fine. A great resource is the water chapter of John Palmer's How to Brew, or the brewing network waterganza episodes.

[BrewerGeorge]

I wouldn't brew with RO at all unless your tap water is very inconsistent. I've had better luck getting a good analysis of my tap water and modifying it. I have super-hard water, but can still make the lightest beers from it with a little acid addition up front. The only caveat to that advice would be if your water tastes bad or has a lot of iron or sulfur.As for your original question, like Orudis says, there is no hard rule about dilution. It depends totally on what the non-RO water starts out as. You can build up totally from RO if you add salts and a good yeast nutrient with zinc, but that's the most expensive route.

[3rd party JKor]

RO is fine for all-grain, too, if you dose it with the proper salts. Plain RO isn't good brewing water.