Do i need to boil the water?

[BennyBoy]

Hello all i just went out and purchased a 30 bottle beaverdale barolo and a Carbouy.
I was wondering, i have been told before to boil my water which was fine when i was using 1 gallon batches but its taking ages to boil - cool and fill up my primary bucket.

So does the beaverdale guys put enough chemicals in so i dont need to boil everything? or what?

P.S. i have a kettle and a gallon metal saucepan boiling and cooling water.

[lockwood1956]

Do you have a limescale problem benny?

if not then im not sure you need to do anything with your water, if you are concerned then you can treat your water with a campdem tablet, to remove chloramides

regards
Bob

[goldseal]

I recently bottled my Beaverdale Barolo. I didn't boil the water, and the wine tastes great. Actually, I think I used some boiled, cooled water to get the temperature just right for pitching, but that was probably just a kettle-full.

(dives for cover).

[BennyBoy]

No waters fine here mate, how do you do it? do you add a campden tablet?
Cheers matey

[Her Lushness]

The water where I am is very hard and limescale in appliances, ie dish washer, washing machine etc is a problem, so I use bottled water for my wines, I've not used tap water at all while being up here, the reason being that I wouldn't drink it from the tap, so I won't use it for my wines.
(Having said that, I never used to drink London water from the tap either!)

Currently Sainsbury's seem to do the cheapest 5 litre bottles of water, but IMHO, the extra 90 pence or so for the water is worth it to save the risk of ruining a wine and wasting all my time and effort put into making it.

[lockwood1956]

I use the water direct from the tap

[Mamgiowl]

Me too, and I never boil it either.

[Duffbeer]

Nor me and it is slightly alkaline here too but never caused a problem, as for the kit Iv'e always found 1 part boiled water to 4 parts cold gives a perfect pitching temp.

[BennyBoy]

Thanks guys, i got it all sorted and chucked the old thermometer in and everything was peachy

I'll post some pics in the pics forum soon

[jay]

ro

is it possale to use ro water (revers osmosis) its a very pure form of water made useing a ro filter system.

[fatbloke]

is it possale to use ro water (revers osmosis) its a very pure form of water made useing a ro filter system.

RO/Reverse Osmosis water is basically the same as distilled water.

Whereas DW has actually been heated and the steam condensed to remove particulate material and "de-mineralise" it, RO water has been forced through a very, very fine membrane type filter to remove particulates/de-mineralise it.

If you're concerned about anything that might be in tap water i.e. chlorine/chloramine (phosphate levels in some area's or even fluroide) or you're in a hard water area that has a lot of limescale (like me) or you just want to be a perfectionist about things, then distilled/de-mineralised/RO water is fine.

With most recipes there's an element of nutrient added in one form or another anyway, so it shouldn't be an issue - as far as I'm aware.

regards

JtFB