Water used in wine?

[DaveL]

I have a well for water. So it is hard. When I cook I use cold water. I have been told over the years stuff builds up in the bottom of a hot water heater.
I have used cold water in mixing my wine and let it heat up to ambient room temps with the help of a space heater.
Does anyone els do this or do most use hot water.

 

[btom2004]

Most use spring water purchased from store and almost never hard/well water. When they say warm water it usually means they warm the spring water first in a pot, never hot water from the tap.

 

[bein_bein]

We have well water and a softener system, but I have noticed that when I use the treated well water vs store bought spring water, it takes much longer to for the wines clear. I usually end up using a clearing agent with well water wines. Spring water seems to be easier to clear.

 

[Tripplett]

I use an under sink RO system from airwaterice.com. I have the 50gpd system with the permeate pump. I have it hooked up to the supplied faucet at the sink, the fridge ice maker, and an extra under sink valve for filling 6 gallon primaries. I have a salt water fish tank so I need an RO system but its been nice to have good clean water for filling and rinsing. It comes with a TDS meter (total dissolved solids). The reading is 55-65 before the filter and 5 after. I believe that is parts per million. The replacement filters are around $20 and they are good for 12-18 months. Sorry, RO is reverse osmosis. I cook with this, all my ice is great, water from the fridge is awesome, and I have no concerns about the water I fill or rinse with while working with my wine making. Hope that helps, I have no ties to airwaterice.com but their prices are fair and they have been great for the last 4 years dealing with them.

 

[dralarms]

I was using the bottled water, but got tired of fighting with Walmart. I switched to using my RO filter also. I also have a salt water fish tank so I already had the RO filter.

 

[Julie]

I have well water and that is what I use. I never use hot water, I use cold water that I will heat up. My reasoning is the water in the hot water tank has been sitting there, where the cold water, which I leave run for a awhile is coming directly from my well.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I also have well water - but I will not use it for wine,because it has natural bacteria in the water and I also have a sulfor smell. I will pick up either city water or store bought.

 

[Boatboy24]

Most kits call for mixing the bentonite with a few cups of hot water to start. For that, I use it from the tap. The rest of the water is spring water that I buy.

Interesting to hear about the RO filters. I looked into putting one in for the house a few years ago, and they were in the thousands of dollars.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I have city water and I have a water softner - I use cold water from the tap when I need it.

 

[jpsmithny]

For beer I've used the tap water. It's just fine. I've used bottled water also but why bother?
I'm in the city and of course they treat the water but I just let it sit for a while until the antibacterial whatever they put in there dissipates.

You can detect a faint chlorine odor at first but it goes away after a while.

 

[Rocky]

There is an old saw that goes, "If it is good enough to drink, it is good enough to make wine." And, even though our water here in central Ohio is great, is still use spring water for my wines just for the peace of mind.

 

[DaveL]

Interesting to read so many varied responses. Funny story. There is a bottles water manufacturer in an adjacent county who seels his water all over the country. It has won awards from competitions for is taste and mineral composition. It is used in makeup production in Califirnia. (I'm in VA). He built a metal building over top of his well and bottles straight.LOL I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[Tripplett]

Interesting to hear about the RO filters. I looked into putting one in for the house a few years ago, and they were in the thousands of dollars.

The one I have is an under the sink type and it will process around 75 gallons a day if you wanted it to. It has a 2 gallon storage tank so when I'm ready to start up a big project I have to empty it a few times over a few hours. I think it was around $150. It does not cover the whole house, just the fridge and a tap on the sink. I believe it was called The MAX 50 at airwaterice. It has two carbon filters, a sediment, and the RO membrane. Mine came with a 75 gal a day membrane but it looks like the current one is only 50. I would never be without one again - winemaking or not. No more lugging bottled water from the store for me.

 

[cohenhouse77]

I live just a few miles away from a spring in Central Florida. Since I have started, I have not used anything but my cold tap water. I've had several wines clear all by themselves without any fining agents in just a few months time. I have what you would call hard water, but I have many friends that come to visit and bring their gallon jugs of water so that they can fill them from my well because my water is awesome. Where I live, bottled spring water is going to be just as hard as my tap water. I figure if there's any bacteria in it, that's why I'm using potassium metabisulfite.

 

[TomC]

Read the label on a bottle of "spring water". In most cases, the water comes from underground aquifers; same as wells. Bottled spring water is "treated"; but, with what?

 

[galen1]

The single most important thing with water is to not use chlorinated water. It could hamper the yeast. I always use a carbon filter. Almost all bottled water has been treated in some way. Read the label.