BARF Homebrewing.

[Ozymandias]

I'm so glad that we have good water here. I only have to condition it for a handful of styles.

Adam, the lime juice will, believe it or not, eliminate some of the chloramine.

Our water here is actually good. I just ended up with the system trying to track down my problem (which turned out to be something I was adding) so now I just water profile everything I'm doing.

 

[Lunch Box]

First thing I always do is to get a water profile when I move. Fortunately, I don't move too often.

 

[carries an axe]

In my case I'm filling a 3 gallon tank but you could have the line runs to whatever tank you need to as long as it can create enough back pressure when full to stop the flow. You'll also either need to deal with the 100-150 gallons of dump water or simply not care about it.

Chloramine will interact with some compounds and cause off flavors. IIRC it's causes a plastic or medicinal flavor in beer. Not sure what it will do to rum. If you're not getting something like that, it might be an expensive 'test' that may not solve your problem. Can you do a smaller run to see if maybe 5 gallons of purchased distilled water will resolve your issue?

Yes,
This is exactly how it was described in my online reading and 2 out of 4 batches have had some strange flavors I would describe as this.

I think the city water gets treated pretty heavily sometimes. Our koi fish are very sensitive to it and we have to use a chemical neutralizer.
We had a giant fish kill a couple of years ago and lost about five or six.

Considering setting up a greywater/ rain gutter system anyway so that's where Wastewater would go if we did it.

 

[Ozymandias]

First thing I always do is to get a water profile when I move. Fortunately, I don't move too often.

I was so new to all grain brewing at the time I had no idea just how much of a role the water profile really played and it was the same soapy like taste in every batch so everything pointed to chloramine and I assumed...

But now, I'm just spoiled being able to make the water however I want it. :laughing

 

[carries an axe]

First thing I always do is to get a water profile when I move. Fortunately, I don't move too often.

What do you mean? Is it something you can request from the city?

 

[Ozymandias]

Yes,
This is exactly how it was described in my online reading and 2 out of 4 batches have had some strange flavors I would describe as this.

I think the city water gets treated pretty heavily sometimes. Our koi fish are very sensitive to it and we have to use a chemical neutralizer.
We had a giant fish kill a couple of years ago and lost about five or six.

Considering setting up a greywater/ rain gutter system anyway so that's where Wastewater would go if we did it.

There are definitely a couple of different municipals in the bay area using chloramine, but not all.

And that's exactly what I did with my dump water at first. Then I realized that our washing machine uses 25 gallons per super load so it started going there. LOL

 

[Ozymandias]

What do you mean? Is it something you can request from the city?

The water district should have it on their website. They might also tell you if they use chloramine or chlorine.

That's the profile of the water at the source, not necessarily at your home. It probably won't change much, though.

 

[carries an axe]

Sweet
I'll go check

 

[Ozymandias]

All this talk about filters, I think I'm due for changing some of them!

 

[carries an axe]

Yeah, SF PUC uses it.
Rated "average to above average use"
Whatever that means

 

[Ozymandias]

Yup, you'll want to get an RO system then. The one I posted should work. Worst case you might need to change out the GAC filter.

I use ours for both beer and drinking water and change the filters about every 6 months. Oh, you'll want to get a small meter to keep an eye on the RO membrane. You don't change that until the TDS starts going up significantly.

 

[carries an axe]

I'll try and work it into the kitchen remodel that's going on.

In other news I just took delivery of three small 5 liter oak barrels

 

[Rel]

I'll try and work it into the kitchen remodel that's going on.

In other news I just took delivery of three small 5 liter oak barrels

Oh, now that's nice..... :thumbup

 

[carries an axe]

:teeth

 

[Ozymandias]

In case anyone is interested. I switched over to electric brewing as of today and there's no way I'm going back so ... :teeth

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/for/6000772528.html

 

[Lunch Box]

You, sir, are doing it properly. Can't wait to see your new rig in person.

 

[Ozymandias]

Thanks! That's saying something coming from the guy starting his own brewery!

 

[carries an axe]

Nice
Honestly what should it cost to install a 220 outlet?
The quote I got was bananas.

 

[Ozymandias]

A friend of mine did my run and it never leaves the garage. But between his friend rate labor and the parts it ended up being $500. It probably would have cost me more like $1000-1200 otherwise and it literally just went around the garage wall from one corner to an adjacent corner.

Most of it really depends on where you need the run to be. 240 runs are expensive partly because the copper itself. You need 3 or 4 large gauge wires for most stuff. IIRC the wire I had to buy for mine was something like $200.

 

[carries an axe]

$1500 quote.
Not as crazy as I thought I guess