# Spring water Vs. Tap Water...



## saintprovogirl (Nov 13, 2010)

So I've heard not to use distilled water (ooops on the last batch) because there are so many necessary components in water that help create a good wine. What I want to know now is...can you use regular tap water or is the chlorine just too much? If I can't use tap water, is the only alternative spring water?


----------



## djrockinsteve (Nov 13, 2010)

As I mentioned on your last thread, tap water is fine. The chlorine will disapate while the sulfite kills misc. bacteria in your must.

There are minerals in tap and spring water that yeast need to help them live and grow. Using distilled removes these and it puts a strain on the yeast.


----------



## saintprovogirl (Nov 13, 2010)

djrockinsteve said:


> As I mentioned on your last thread, tap water is fine. The chlorine will disapate while the sulfite kills misc. bacteria in your must.
> 
> There are minerals in tap and spring water that yeast need to help them live and grow. Using distilled removes these and it puts a strain on the yeast.



Sorry I guess I missed the tap water part...it's still early here and too much wine the night before makes for a fun day.  Thank you so much for answering my questions regarding the water because if I don't need to go out and buy spring water...yay!


----------



## saintprovogirl (Nov 13, 2010)

djrockinsteve said:


> As I mentioned on your last thread, tap water is fine. The chlorine will disapate while the sulfite kills misc. bacteria in your must.
> 
> There are minerals in tap and spring water that yeast need to help them live and grow. Using distilled removes these and it puts a strain on the yeast.



I really wish I hadn't used distilled water...grrr! It seems as though my wine is fermenting fine and actually started up pretty quickly, but do you think this will slow down pretty quickly considering? I know there is nothing I can do but wait now, but I was curious.


----------



## djrockinsteve (Nov 13, 2010)

I believe it will be fine. Not seeing your recipe it's hard to say but if it should slow you can add some super ferment or yeast nutrients to your must.

Keep us posted.


----------



## saintprovogirl (Nov 13, 2010)

djrockinsteve said:


> I believe it will be fine. Not seeing your recipe it's hard to say but if it should slow you can add some super ferment or yeast nutrients to your must.
> 
> Keep us posted.



Thanks for your help Steve?


----------



## Cincincy (Apr 8, 2017)

I have always felt the metal / minerals in tap water were essential.


----------



## DoctorCAD (Apr 8, 2017)

Get yourself a Brita. Cheap and works wonders on tap water.


----------



## Scooter68 (Apr 10, 2017)

If you are using fruit for your wine it comes with a few minerals in it. Really while it may help yeast I have to wonder if distilled water will really cause problems. Fruit, concentrates etc are going to have some minerals and element in them. Perhaps there is less chance of a problem with regular water but given all the other things that can show up in tap water, I would prefer to at least use filtered water nowadays. Well water or straight tap water all can have things that even the city systems didn't really intend to be in the water delivered to your tap.


----------



## Noontime (Apr 11, 2017)

The rule I've always heard is, if it tastes OK you can use it for wine. There are plenty of places that have funky tasting tap water, so filtering it or going to the grocery store and getting "spring water" (quotes since most spring water is just filtered tap water) might make sense. Even hyper-chlorinated isn't an issue since the chlorine will attach to molecules in the wine and drop out. We use tap water for our wine, and drink glasses of tap water with no filtering. Of course charcoal filtering certainly can't hurt.


----------



## Noontime (Apr 11, 2017)

I look forward to hearing from the chemistry geeks, but I believe it's the pH of distilled water that makes it not preferable.


----------



## Scooter68 (Apr 11, 2017)

Noontime said:


> I look forward to hearing from the chemistry geeks, but I believe it's the pH of distilled water that makes it not preferable.



According to: https://www.reference.com/science/ph-distilled-water-7-0-46e8de626badfb31

Distilled water can range from 6.8 to 5.0 - I don't see how that would pose a problem. "Pure Water" should be 7.0 or Neutral according to this source but it typically picks up some CO2 making it more acidic - which I would expect to no problem most of the time. Another source states that tap water typically ranges from 6.8 to 8.5 - THAT I would think could pose more of a problem being on the opposite end of the scale from where we want for wine fermentation. BUT.... I'm no chemist.


----------



## Noontime (Apr 12, 2017)

Scooter68 said:


> According to: https://www.reference.com/science/ph-distilled-water-7-0-46e8de626badfb31
> 
> Distilled water can range from 6.8 to 5.0 - I don't see how that would pose a problem. "Pure Water" should be 7.0 or Neutral according to this source but it typically picks up some CO2 making it more acidic - which I would expect to no problem most of the time. Another source states that tap water typically ranges from 6.8 to 8.5 - THAT I would think could pose more of a problem being on the opposite end of the scale from where we want for wine fermentation. BUT.... I'm no chemist.



Thanks Scooter. I was under the impression that distilled water was more alkaline. Good to know, thanks.


----------

