pre-boiling water for mead

[MattHollingsworth]

Given that there is really no quantitative analysis of the optimal amount of dissolved carbonate in water used for meadmaking (at least none that I've ever seen published), you should take blanket statements like the one in Steve's paper with a grain of salt (tangential pun there). That said, as Steve was AHA's Meadmaker of the Year back in '08 he has had more than a little success with his batches. ;D Still, I'd rather something like this be phrased more along the lines of "I have consistent success with water containing 200 to 500 ppm hardness as carbonates," or something similar. Calling that level of salts "optimal" without substantiation is a stretch.

There is a lot of meadmaking "lore" out in the community, some of it quite well founded, and some of it based on very loosely tracked anecdotal experience. A portion of that latter info is quite frankly, simply wrong. I'm not saying that Steve's position is one of those - I'm merely suggesting that you need to be careful to find the basis of the substantiation of any claims or conclusions cited anywhere in the online meadmaking literature. In the absence of such data, then take the recommendations that you read for what they are - the conclusions of one meadmaker.

That said, I can state that I've had excellent success with water in the 300 ppm range, but I've also had good success (including a couple of meads that earned medals and mazers at IMF and Mazer Cups past), using my current source of relatively soft (hardness less than 100 ppm) water. I think the range is wider than Steve believes it to be.

Thanks. But yeah, I always take anything online with a grain of salt. Not just with brewing. I've been online for 16 or so years now and have seen a lot of BS online over the years, especially in the comics and homebrewing communities. My point wasn't that it actually IS optimal, more that yes, this guy who's won awards seems to think it's optimal. Meaning I don't think I need to be overly concerned using my tap water as is, after carbon filtering.

I've never lived anywhere before I moved here with water this high in bicarbonate. I did most of my brewing before when I lived in Portland, which has quite soft water. So, when I started up again brewing here, I was a stickler for trying to get the water right so it wouldn't bite me in the ass.

Anyway, yeah, I've been reading a LOT of stuff online now about meadmaking. As with beer brewing, if you read about one topic all over the place, you'll see a thousand opinions. If someone is winning lots of awards, though, I might take a second look at what they say. A lot of experience is just that, experience. Might not be tested as a scientific experiment, but someone's experience may indicate something worth noting.

Thanks for the heads up though. Cheers!

 

[MrMooCow]

Just a note on distilled vs tap vs spring, etc, etc. I can't speak for other countries, but something to keep in mind is that the health standards for bottled water in the US are lower then that for tap. Or, more accurately, bottled water is treated like food, which has lower standards then water. Plus fewer inspections, tests, etc.

Personally, I use filtered tap water. If I'm doing a small brew, I just use the in-sink filter. For large brews, I use the filtered water station at the grocery store (which is carbon filtered, reverse osmosis, with a UV light on tap water).

As for distilled water, my understanding is that the really big problem comes if you're using distilled water to rehydrate dry yeast, as the lack of minerals causes greater stress on the cell walls of the yeast. Or something. These are not my words, these are the words of people who know what they're talking about! ;D

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Thanks for the heads up. I'd never use distilled water for yeast starters or rehydrating. As it turns out, I'm just not using any of it at all. Making the first batch tonight, just using carbon filtered tap water, which tastes very good here.

 

[Meriadoc]

If "guys" is "inclusive" then so is "gals."
Try spending a whole week using "gals" instead of "guys" and you'll find out that "guys" don't think "gals" is an inclusive term...I've said it before and I'll say it again: The way we use language shapes the way we think.

Good point

Well, it's been years since I looked at a linguistics text, but I know that modern Romance languages (as well as Greek and Latin) don't work that way -- and so, I'm guessing that this is the way that Proto-Indo-European worked: the masculine plural always meant a group of all men or a mixed-gender group, while the feminine plural made the distinction of a purely female group. So, to say that "if 'guys' is inclusive, then 'gals' must be, too, or else your idea doesn't work", doesn't really hold water.

Using that as a nice opportunity for a segue...

I can't scrounge it up right now, but I could swear I read it somewhere that distilled water should never be used, the yeast are too reliant on the minerals in it. Filtered or mineral re-added should be used instead.

Darn, so many things I read and now I can't find them :-/

I recall reading that, too. I also recall reading in homebrew books that water is what makes for the distinctive flavors of particular recipes (and explains why it's so hard to make a perfect knock-off of Guinness, for example). I can vouch that the current version of Iron City Beer is nothing like the good ol' "Heavy Iron" I remember, back when it was brewed from water pulled from Pittsburgh rivers...