Beer Forum

I hear alot of people who aren't real big on water treatment (like Jamil) say that it's still a good idea to filter chlorine out of the water before brewing with it. Before I go and buy a filter for this, I was wondering....a guy told me that all you have to do is let the water sit out for 12 hours, and the chlorine just comes out by itself. I guess it evaporates out? Could this be true? Could I just set the water out in an open vessel the night before I brew, wake up the next day and the water is chlorine-free? If so, why buy a filter?

If I understand correctly that may remove the chlorine but not the chlormines (sp). I personaly just bought a carbon filter and filter all my brew water. It's not that expensive and the filter lasts for about 500gallons of water.

I think you have to use a camden tablet to make the "letting it sit overnight" method work. I have a water filter, so I'm not 100% sure on this, but that's how I understood it.

linuxelf wrote:I think you have to use a camden tablet to make the "letting it sit overnight" method work. I have a water filter, so I'm not 100% sure on this, but that's how I understood it.

Yes, this is correct. Most municipalities use "chlorimines" instead of just plain chlorine as the general sanitizer. They've gone to this because it's a more stable compound and it last longer. I've been told by many experts in this area that the use of a camden tablet will treat 20 gallons of water and will combine with either the ammonia of chlorine portion of the chloramines and separates it out allowing you to now filter out the stuff you dont want in your beer.
Steve

BrotherhoodBrew wrote:If I understand correctly that may remove the chlorine but not the chlormines (sp). I personaly just bought a carbon filter and filter all my brew water. It's not that expensive and the filter lasts for about 500gallons of water.

Right. Plus, no waiting with a filter. I like to be able to brew on a moments notice.

jamilz wrote:

BrotherhoodBrew wrote:If I understand correctly that may remove the chlorine but not the chlormines (sp). I personaly just bought a carbon filter and filter all my brew water. It's not that expensive and the filter lasts for about 500gallons of water.

Right. Plus, no waiting with a filter. I like to be able to brew on a moments notice.

Am I wrong in the belief that filtration alone is ineffective on "chloramines"? Most of the experts that I talk to on a daily basis have informed me that since most municipalities have gone to this method of water treatment you cannot remove it completely with filtration. This is well know to folks who have fish as pets and need to treat their water. I too employ one of the best filters thats available and still I need to use a camden tablet.

Steve

My understanding is that carbon filtration is 100% effective in removing chloramine.

jamilz wrote:My understanding is that carbon filtration is 100% effective in removing chloramine.

Unfortunately this is not true! This could be an excelent topic to expand on. I brought this topic up a year or two ago on another newsgroup "rec, crafts, brewing" and we had an lengthy discussion on this subject. Believe it or not it was noted by several professionals in that industry that even RO filtration, which is the best filtration process available isn't completely effective at removing chloramines. Carbon filtration alone is helpful at removeing "some" but not all the chloramines. Yet to be truely effective it needs to be the granular style of activated carbon AND maintain a three minute contact time. Even the different chemist who render professional opinions on it's impact on the public and it's many applications suggest that filtration "isn't" effective for complete removal. Sorry bud, I don't mean to pee in your yeast starter so to speak but this is the truth! Please, Google it and you'll see.

Steve