Activated Carbon Filter Vs Reverse Osmosis for proofing down??

[Ish200]

I am interested to see if there are any thoughts on which one is optimal for proofing down spirits 

My understanding is that activated carbon can effectively remove chlorine and some other organic compounds but is generally a less effective filtration technique than RO which can also remove most heavy metals (when operated correctly).  

Has anyone experienced off flavors with less filtered water? or potentially the additional components in the water add some complexity to the flavor of the finished product??

 

Thanks four your insight

[Buckeye Hydro]

Where to start?

The two processes, carbon filtration and reverse osmosis, are two entirely different things.  In nearly all circumstances they produce very different water quality.  Yes - if sized correctly, a carbon filter can remove chlorine.  But it will not remove dissolved solids (the "TDS" you've probably heard of).  Reverse osmosis will remove a very high percentage (>95%) of total dissolved solids.

Every distillery we've worked with uses RO water to proof.

 

Russ 

[Foreshot]

The best thing we ever did flavor-wise was to use RO water for proofing. It made the flavors much brighter vs. carbon filtered water as we were previously using.

[Ish200]

thank you both for your insight!

 

[whiskeytango]

And lots of RO systems use carbon filtering as well.  So when people say they like RO water they might actually like Carbon filters water that is then RO filtered 

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Any feedwater to an RO system that contains chlorine of chloramine must first run through carbon.  Modern RO (TFC or Thin Film Composite) membranes don't tolerate exposure to those chemicals.

Additionally, if the feedwater is hard, a softener is a common piece of pretreatment equipment.  This typically applies only to commercial RO's, as the membranes are more expensive to replace when they get loaded with hardness scale.

Russ

 

[SlickFloss]

A carbon filter will remove a certain amount of shit form water but at the end of the day unless you can guarantee the consistency of your feedstock (municipal/well water) you will absolutely have trouble with consistency issues in term of seasonality. Also, a lot of problems with water that aren't even regulated that wouldn't really be addressed by activated carbon (Biofilm etc/). ROs the way to go if you wanna be a pro about it unless you're super dialed in on your water, which no offense you don't sound like you are. 

[Silk City Distillers]

Crazy anecdote about water consistency.

Our water is from a large regional provider (aka municipal water).  
 

Late every winter into early spring, we would notice TDS of our input water spike, considerably.  From a baseline in the 100s up to the 400s.

Got talking to the water department and what they told me made me do a double take.

TDS rises because of the amount of salt added to the groundwater as a result of salting the roadways in the winter.

We happily use RO + DI and target a tds of 0-1 for our proofing water.

[Skaalvenn]

6 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Crazy anecdote about water consistency.

Our water is from a large regional provider (aka municipal water).  
 

Late every winter into early spring, we would notice TDS of our input water spike, considerably.  From a baseline in the 100s up to the 400s.

Got talking to the water department and what they told me made me do a double take.

TDS rises because of the amount of salt added to the groundwater as a result of salting the roadways in the winter.

We happily use RO + DI and target a tds of 0-1 for our proofing water.

You'll also see a difference between summer/winter due to the amount of water being pulled from the ground. Summertime = much higher rates of water due to lawn watering. We see pH  fluctuate substantially (not much with TDS) between summer and winter months and had some meetings with the public works managers as I was thoroughly confused when I first noticed it.

[SlickFloss]

A huge reason you see ph swings as well as probably changes in chlorine levels also izs because as temp and use increases (summer) so does the need for additional chlorine use, which brings in more variables like additional dosing period s, concentrations of additions, and just the reality of the mechanics of managing a municipal water supply in general