Water filtration

[Rays Distilling]

I am having a hard time getting info on the topic of water. What exactly do I need for the distillation process, and what do I need for the finishing process.

A follow up, what filtration process do you all recommend. I have heard only use reverse osmosis, I've heard that this is unnecessary and overkill.

Any info on what exactly I want in my water and how to get my municipal water filtered would be great.

Thanks.

[bluestar]

Depends on your water. First thing to do, get an analysis done of the water as delivered to your site. There is a lot of info out there about what should or should not be in the water, search this site and look at almost any of the texts. You could need nothing, minor chemical adjustment, simple filter or softening, or even full RO.

[Rays Distilling]

Thanks bluestar,

I have a water report, what I can't find enough info on is what levels of chlorine, iron, etc. I need to be looking for.

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

how does it (the water) taste?

good tasting water (used for fermenting, distilling, blending) will result in good tasting final product. I wouldn't suggest wasting time in trying to tweak the components of your water, there aren't levels of anything "needed". You can go au natural and use what you have locally, or you can strip everything from it via an RO system. But concern yourself with the taste first.

best of luck,

-Scott

[Rich Morgan]

I have found the best process is to dilute the final product with the best water you can make. We double RO our town water and use that for dilution. If your local water has a high level of dissolved salts, you run the risk of cloudiness in the final product. I do not know of a major distillery that does not RO their dilution water. Town water is fine for brewing, in fact a little hardness helps.

[Rays Distilling]

Our water reports only slightly high level was for water hardness. So it sounds like we will be using this water for our brewing and then further filter it for our finishing.

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

I have found the best process is to dilute the final product with the best water you can make. We double RO our town water and use that for dilution. If your local water has a high level of dissolved salts, you run the risk of cloudiness in the final product. I do not know of a major distillery that does not RO their dilution water. Town water is fine for brewing, in fact a little hardness helps.

If you are putting your water through your RO system twice, then your RO membranes aren't working properly. Do you take a TDS (Total Disolved Solids) measurement of the water coming our of your RO system? Is should be 0 or near-zero. If it isn't then you need to replace your membranes. But putting water through an RO system that works properly twice is only wasting time and enery. Thinking this through, our RO system is connected to our water supply, and we have no way of reintroducing the water back into the system without some complex plumbing and pumps...which I can't image justifying the cost in any scenario, so do you own two RO systems?

TDS meters are cheap digital tools than you can source on the internet easily. http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-Pocket-TDS-4-Quality/dp/B0002T6L5M If you don't own one, and you own an RO system, I'd make sourcing one tomrrow morning's first priority.

best of luck,

-Scott