Water

[Rusty Nesmith]

When using a wine kit and adding water to the fermenter do you add tap water or chlorine free water?

 

[dralarms]

I use filtered water. But if your water is fine I’d use it. My water taste like crap so I don’t even use it to cook with.

 

[FTC Wines]

We have been using tap water for over 13 years, in two different states. But there is never a chlorine smell or taste in the water. I also fill,the bucket with the faucet set to spray to aerate it a little. Roy

 

[Intheswamp]

Water. Do not use distilled water as the minerals have been removed by the distillation process (we recently were mentioning distilled water for others things, so... ). If your tap water tastes good to you, use it. If you're concerned about chlorine you can fill a bucket with it and leave it out overnight or over the day and the chlorine should be pretty much gone in several hours. Otherwise, buy several gallons of "spring water" or whatever at the grocery/dollar store.

 

[joeswine]

I have used filtered water since the beginning of my wine making time.
It just made sense to me.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

Do you have to lower the PH before you add it?

 

[sour_grapes]

Do you have to lower the PH before you add it?

Tap water for me.

No need to reduce the pH. The kit was designed with neutral water in mind.

 

[Scooter68]

I've done both tap water and Filtered water (The cheap filtered and UV radiated water from Walmart's serve yourself machines.) I prefer to do the filtered water simply because every now and then the water departments will announce a "Boil water" order due to some leak or other situation that may have compromised the tap water. I usually find out about those orders a couple of days after they are issued since I don't sit and listen to the local news or take a local newspaper. So other than NOT using distilled water, I just pay the current $0.39/gallon for that 'special' walmart water or tap water if I've run out of the filtered water.

 

[gsf77]

Someone please explain the bad side effects of using distilled water - since I've used it and it's in a carboy. Thanks,

 

[1d10t]

Someone please explain the bad side effects of using distilled water - since I've used it and it's in a carboy. Thanks,

As a practical matter, there is none. If your water tastes good, use it and don't worry. I've seen it argued that since only water molecules are removed during concentration, only distilled water should be used for reconstitution.

 

[stickman]

There is often confusion about using distilled water; distilled water is ok for reconstituting the kit, but not ok for hydrating yeast.

 

[Rocky]

Rusty, I am going to give you a different perspective which is in conflict with my friend, Intheswamp. I use distilled water because it is pure H2O, two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom. My feeling is when the manufacturer makes up the kit and reduces the grape juice, the only thing that is removed is pure water. The minerals of the grapes' terroir remain in the concentrate and I am only adding back the Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms that were removed.

 

[cmason1957]

I will offer some anecdotal evidence, take from it what you will and ignore the rest. Understand - Your Mileage May Vary.

Just for the heck of it one time and partially because I like to be a bit different (some might say difficult), I made up a 6 gallon wine kit, into two 3 gallon each. One I used the tap water from the city I live in, there certainly is some chlorine in it, but it isn't objectionable to drink, the other I used spring water from your friendly neighborhood Wally World. Both kits fermented, cleared, looked about the same. There were differences in taste, nothing anyone could put their finger on, but differences. I took a bottle of each to wine club one month, probably 30 people there, blind-tasted them against each other. They scored out at a Silver medal, no particular difference between the two of them. Nobody could say this one was tap, this one was spring. But it was split about 50/50 as to which people liked better. So bottom line to all that, if you like to drink your water, use it.

 

[Intheswamp]

Rusty, I am going to give you a different perspective which is in conflict with my friend, Intheswamp. I use distilled water because it is pure H2O, two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom. My feeling is when the manufacturer makes up the kit and reduces the grape juice, the only thing that is removed is pure water. The minerals of the grapes' terroir remain in the concentrate and I am only adding back the Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms that were removed.

Rocky, you realize that if I was to drink a bottle of that old mead of mine that I'd probably break out in an old Carol King song...and that would just be horrible for anybody within hearing distance.<GRIN>

I have erred in muddying the conversation here. The OP stated upfront that he/she was asking about starting a wine kit. Myself, I'm not sure I'll ever do a batch of wine from a kit and apparently in my area there is no lowly Welch's juice concentrates, either. So, all my wines will be honey wines, fruit wines, and Welch's juice wines. None of which will be from concentrate and I will be needing to add water and in doing so provide the minerals and trace elements for the yeast's nutrition. Using distilled water would create, from what I can tell, a desert barren of minerals for my non-grape concentrate musts.

But, for a kit wine with concentrates (as the OP so plainly stated), I can see that you are correct in the fact that the minerals are also concentrated and you are actually only reconstituting the concentrate to more or less the original juice/must...and distilled water will work fine.

I think I'm thinking too much.

"Winter, spring, summer, or fall..."

 

[Scooter68]

For me it's not too difficult but..

Distilled water, for rinsing/ prepping my pH meter, and making my Starsan solution. (Local tap water makes my Starsan solution cloudy immediately)
Filtered water - For volume additions when prepping a must AND, oh the horror, topping off my wine. (I use additional fruit volume & shoot high on the ABV so dilution of my wine is not an issue.)
Tap water - For washing, rinsing equipment/bottles after washing AND, when out of Filtered water, for prepping a wine batch.

I don't rinse off my sanitizer (Starsan) normally, but if taking SG measurements or pH tests, I do occasionally use filtered water or distilled water for that.