BeerBorg

Easy question...how many of you brew with 100% store bought spring water and add nothing to it and don't worry about the water profile? If you do...how do you like the beer that comes from it?

I used to, sort of. It's actually from our local water purifier and we fill up about 6 5-gallon bottles a few times each month. That's what I brew with.

It was just about 2 years ago IIRC that I started messing with my water because.......I guess I just wanted to learn something new.

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I used to till I found out how good our tap water profile is. With spring water I made pretty good beers, noticed in comps that scores went from low to mid 30's to upper 30's to low-mid 40's after I started treating the water to beer specific profiles.

My tap water isn't all that great. It's really high in sodium. I've been using distilled water and adding back minerals, but I was thinking of trying just plain old store bought spring water and adding no minerals. Not sure what I want to do yet.

For me, it's the lighter beers that I really noticed improvement with after I started adjusting the water. But because it's harder to hide any problems, it requires more patience in prep for me. Darker and heavier beers are where I've not really noticed any changes for the reasons I've just noted.
But, when buying water, can you really trust you're getting what they say you are? From what I've heard, they're never really checked. Especially the machine dispensers.

BlackDuck wrote:My tap water isn't all that great. It's really high in sodium. I've been using distilled water and adding back minerals, but I was thinking of trying just plain old store bought spring water and adding no minerals. Not sure what I want to do yet.

Well to quote Forest Gump..."You never know what you're gonna get".

You can end up with water even worse for your brewing. Without knowing the mineral content it would be lot of trial and error. Spring water can still be high in areas unwanted for brewing, low in areas you do want for brewing. I just don't see it as a step in the right direction. Distilled/ RO water and building it up with your own mineral additions like you have been is probably best, then you can adjust for different styles. Maybe not every beer but different styles. I am lucky to have good tap water, its good middle of the road brewing water for my ales. Often don't need anything but acid for the mash.

MadBrewer wrote:Distilled/ RO water and building it up with your own mineral additions like you have been is probably best

Yea...I would agree. It was really more out of curiosity than anything else.

FWIW, I did this a couple of times when my tap water was messed up due to construction. They were pale ales, and they were extract + steep/pm, not AG. They turned out fine. But again they were not AG, so who knows what would have happened if it was AG.

I have used alot of store spring water, and then used mine. Can't tell the difference. Our water comes from an artesian well on our property so I guess you can call it spring water. It is heavy in minerals but I run it through a filter, then water softener then always do the mash n boil.