Removing Chlorine

[ChristianSA]

Can I boil the water to remove chlorine - and if so for how long? Do I need to cool it and reheat before using it for brewing.

-Christian

[TheTodd]

Yes, you can boil (10-15min) to remove or allow to sit overnight. Or, you can add a Campden tablet (metabisulfate?) which is much easier, faster and costs a lot less than propane or electricity for boiling.

Cooling and reheating is unnecessary for your boil water, but if you have chlorinated water, you will need to boil and cool any water you use after the boil.

[ChristianSA]

Yes, you can boil (10-15min) to remove or allow to sit overnight. Or, you can add a Campden tablet (metabisulfate?) which is much easier, faster and costs a lot less than propane or electricity for boiling.

Cooling and reheating is unnecessary for your boil water, but if you have chlorinated water, you will need to boil and cool any water you use after the boil.

Can I just let it sit overnight? That would be the cheapest option as it would not need any electricity or propane?

[KimJongAle]

You may want to contact your local water department. A good number of cities these days are using chloramine to chlorinate the water supply. It is much more stable, and as a result cannot be effectively boiled off, rested overnight, or (generally) removed with a carbon filter. Your best option is to follow TheTodd's suggestion and buy some campden tablets.

[Steelers&Beer]

The Todd is absolutely right no matter how disturbing his avatar is....

[KimJongAle]

The Todd is absolutely right no matter how disturbing his avatar is....

It's so wrong that it's right?

[ajdelange]

You do not want chlorine or chloramine to touch your malt as it can react with phenolics in it (husks mostly) to create the feared chlorphenolics. Thus all brewing water should be dechlorinated/dechloraminated. Chlorine is simple. Let the water stand over night. If you have a large volume, it wouldn't hurt to splash it, pump it in a circuit so it splashes back into the container etc. Heating works for chlorine. A brewery I used to be involved with would just preheat the water the night before brewing in the HLT and by the morning the chlorine would be gone. I assume the HLT was vented but I don't remember.

Chloramine is a different matter. It takes days of standing or an hour or more of vigorous boiling to drive it off. GAC will take it out but, as has been noted, a bit of potassium or sodium metabisulfite will take care of it surely, quickly and inexpensively. One Campden tablet per 20 gallons treated will handle chloraminated water which has been dosed to the maximum chlorination level approved by EPA.

It is very simple to tell whether you have chloramine. If you let water stand overnight the chlorine will escape. If it smells of chlorine the next day you have chloramine - sufficient to cause a potential chlorphenolics problem. In that case you can simply add bits of a Campden tablet until the chlorine smell is gone (perhaps to be replaced by a sulfur dioxide smell bit don't worry about that).

[Rhoobarb]

I had been using Campden tablets regularly up until recently. I was told a.) your charcoal filter will eliminate chloramine and b.) Campden tablets can harm yeast if not let to sit for a considerable amount of time. I had always filtered my water, then dumped in a proportion of a crushed Campden tablet for the amount of water I was using to mash & sparge, then began to heat my water. I didn't let the water sit at all. So, was I mislead?