Reverse Osmosis--hard water

[Hawkeye]

Hey Howdy Hey...

So my water report confirms what I felt, which was that our city water is hard (7.3-7.5). Relative to using star san, our beer informacion states that we need a much lower PH. So the options include buying water that is RO/Distilled, or installing a RO system in the basement where all the brew equipment is.

I imagine there are certain other advantages to having an RO setup, in terms of being able to build the water up, etc.

Thoughts? Reccomendations on units? I saw a few systems listed on midwest supplies website, none on morebeer or northern brewer. Just wondering what everyone here with hard water does...

Am I over-killing by thinking of installing a system?

john

[oneal66]

OK for starsan just buy a couple of gallons of distilled water to make up your sanitizer. It does depend on how much you brew and need distilled water. I thought that B3 had an RO system for sale, but they may have removed it. I know that Home Depot has a small RO system for sale. If you only need RO water for sanitizing then you might just want to buy the distilled water. If you want to try to build your water or do like Gordon Biersch and blend your water, then you might consider getting an RO system.

[DannyW]

For every 10 gallon batch I do I buy 12-18 gallons of RO water from a machine for $0.25 per gallon. I blend it in various proportions with my carbonate heavy water depending on what I am brewing. It has just become part of brewday, and not too much of an inconvenience since I have to go out and buy ice anyway. I think when you factor in the purchase and the maintenance of the system, I'm not gaining or losing much $ by buying the water as I need it.

I definitely use RO for mixing up starsan; stuff lasts forever that way. I use the well water for iodophore and PBW.

Ideally I'd have a whole house RO system so my fixtures don't get so cruddy all the time, with a raw water feed to the fridge or sink for drinking.

[SacoDeToro]

I have a GE home RO system and it works very well. While its advertised output is 15 gallons/day, I've found that I can get 20-25 gallons in 24 hours without issue. The harder your municipal water though, the faster you'll go through filters/membranes and your output rate may be slightly lower.

Not only can I make RO water whenever I want, but I don't have to waste time going to the store buying water and worrying about all the packaging. If you brew often enough, buying a home RO system will pay for itself soon enough and certainly makes brewing more convenient. I had some scrap wood lying around the house and used it to build a small cart that houses the system. I spent about $150 on the entire thing.