RODI vs. Dartmouth tap water

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nlkips
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RODI vs. Dartmouth tap water

Post by nlkips » Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:56 pm

I was wondering if it's better to use RODI or just the regular tap water (Dartmouth) for making IPA style beer. I'm just getting into all grain brewing and don't have anything for measuring water parameters as I sold all that stuff when I got out of the reef hobby. Or would anyone have a base line of additives that they add to RODI water for brewing.

Thanks

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Celiacbrew
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Re: RODI vs. Dartmouth tap water

Post by Celiacbrew » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:36 pm

I find our tap water has an objectionable flavour to it so I filter it through two rv filters. I would use reverse osmosis but the benefit isn’t big enough for me to justify the cost.

For water profile if you want a general guideline I will point you to AJ delange’s primer on water chemistry https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/thre ... er.198460/

For me an IPA will usually take a few ml of 75% phosphoric acid and about a teaspoon each of cacl and gypsum.

To get a little closer it is worth learning to use one of the free excel sheets like brun’ Water https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

Also you can find example water reports in the water reports thread on this site or from Halifax water’s annual report.
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John G
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Re: RODI vs. Dartmouth tap water

Post by John G » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:40 pm

Have a look at the sticky in this forum on HRM water profiles.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2284

That's a good indication of where you're starting from. Note that this changes seasonally though and the reports are only a snapshot in time.

I personally think the HRM water is great for most beer styles with a little adjusting. In the summer it smells of geosmin (Dirt) and you need to filter that out with carbon. Our water here is super soft so you have a relatively blank canvas to add to in order to build up water to emulate a specific brewing region. Get the chlorine out of it though for sure.

For my IPAs and similar hoppy styles I'll adjust my mash with a few drops of lactic acid to get the pH down to 5.2 and throw in a tablespoon or so of gypsum in the mash for a 5 gal batch size. I'm sure I could do more, but that seems to work for me. If you don't have a pH meter, skip the pH adjustments.

Just my 2 cents though.

nlkips
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Re: RODI vs. Dartmouth tap water

Post by nlkips » Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:13 pm

Thanks for the tips. I'll use the RO for starsan since I have several gallons made up and just go with water from the carbon filter on the fridge for brewing.

I'm using the Dartmouth profile on BrewersFriend, but realized that I'm changing it a lot with the filtering so it was kind of pointless. Once I get my brew day down I'll have to figure out the water chemistry process and use the RODI to build the water profile from scratch.

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Re: RODI vs. Dartmouth tap water

Post by Celiacbrew » Mon Feb 11, 2019 4:59 pm

Your carbon filter won't change your hardness much. this is from the brun water sheet. Once you get to the point that you want to learn more about water its a pretty good resource. Also lots of members will have the water book and I bet if you ask one of us would be happy to lend it to you.

Happy brewing.
Activated Carbon Filtration of brewing water is an effective disinfectant removal alternative. Activated Carbon is also known as: carbon, carbon block, granular carbon, GAC. Both chlorine and chloramine are removed from the water by activated carbon while leaving most other water ion concentrations unchanged. Filtering with activated carbon can also remove water contaminants such as organic compounds that include taste and odor compounds. The chlorine and contaminant removal performance of activated carbon filtration is proportional to the amount of time the water is in contact with the activated carbon. Therefore, a low flow rate through an activated carbon filter is required to provide acceptable chlorine and contaminant removal performance. The flow rate through a standard under-sink (10-inch) activated carbon filter unit should be no greater than 1 gallon per minute to achieve good chlorine and chloramine removal. Inserting a restrictor plate in the filter’s water supply line with a 1/16-inch diameter hole will reduce the flow rate through a filter to about 1 gallon per minute. The flow rate through smaller filters should be further reduced to provide good removal. A slow filtering flow rate increases the life of the filter cartridge and the volume of water it can treat.
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nlkips
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Re: RODI vs. Dartmouth tap water

Post by nlkips » Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:38 pm

I believe that's about the flow rate (gal/min) through the fridge. I'm going to look at installing a bypass valve into the RODI unit to cut down on the cost of the fridge filters. And I'll have to read that book once I finish the current. I had assumed that pure water would be ideal over tap water and took zero consideration into the minerals and such in tap water.

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