Home of the BrewNosers

I pretty much brew with city water, straight from the tap. What exactly are the benefits and/or draw backs of this? Is Halifax water inherently suited to a particular style of beer? I know this is talked about in Ireland and areas of Western Europe as being a key contributor to creating regional brew styles, using water that has a unique makeup to it's specific region. Do you go out of you way to purify or otherwise treat your brewing water? I am not a "water snob" by any means, and think bottled water is a scam and somewhat of an environmental catastrophe, but there are plenty of HBTers who swear by packaged water in their brewing, so I thought I'd ask.

...Or does it make no difference whatsoever, and I should stop worrying about it...

I've been meaning to filter my water for chlorine and such, but haven't gotten around to it. Nash is probably the expert here on brewing with HFX water.

I don't think I'm exactly an expert but I'll throw my 2 cents worth out there anyways.

Halifax city water is very soft, therefore makes great brewing water because you can adjust upwards as required for whatever style you want to brew. I filter and treat brewing water for every batch in one way or another, sometimes in a few ways

One thing is for sure, you should get the chlorine knocked out of it at least, chlorophenols can be very nasty tasting. A particle filter isn't needed but a carbon filter to remove the chlorine would be good, or it'll gas-off in an open vessel with an overnight rest or with a quick boil. It'll also gas-off pretty quick by moving it while heating, stirring or recirculating at 170F for 15 mins would likely do it. You could see exactly how long at what temps etc if you had a way to do a titration test, or maybe even chlorine strips would work. Heck you may be knocking all of the chlorine out when you heat the strike and sparge water, again I'd test it to be sure.

Your beer will always be better, or at least have a better chance of being better if you treat the water accordingly for the style.

Greg - have you ever had tests done on the city water or do you just go by the data HRM has available online? I assume the online data has to be fairly accurate but I'm just curious if you legit brewers trust such publicly available reports.

http://www.halifax.ca/hrwc/documents/20 ... eMajor.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
As someone who knows how and who tests the water, I trust the data they put out.
I don't do anything to the water, but know that adjusting it to style will benefit.

Jayme wrote:Greg - have you ever had tests done on the city water or do you just go by the data HRM has available online? I assume the online data has to be fairly accurate but I'm just curious if you legit brewers trust such publicly available reports.

I use the city water reports which are generally fine. Exact chemistry will be different throughout the city though, depending on the length and type of pipeline runs etc. If you're at the far end of the city away from the water supply and the piping was planted in 1947 you're gonna have considerable mineral pick-up before it comes out of your faucets.