[smkranz]

Easy and cheap chlorine/chloramine test strips here:

http://www.oceanproaquatics.com/shop/lifegard-chlorinechloramine-test-strips-p-3427.html

A good local aquarium/pond supply center might also have them, where I originally found them.  I have also seen other brands. 

The strip has two test pads, one shows total chlorine and the other shows just free chlorine.  If free chlorine is clean (white) but total chlorine is pink, then you still have some chloramine in there.

[alcaponejunior]

Campden tablets are pretty cheap.  Don't know what you're paying for your store bought water but for me it's a lot cheaper to use the campden where I can.

To me the extra $2.50 or so each for 3 x 2-gallon bottled spring water is a small price to pay for good beer.  Every batch has come out good since I started using spring water.  Prior to that (when I was doing Mr Beer) I discovered the hard way what chloramine treated water makes beer taste like.  In some ways I'm quite glad I started with Mr Beer because I discovered the water issue before I was spending $30-40+ on ingredients for a beer kit (I got a three pack of Mr Beer stuff for $25). 

Now I can use the Mr Beer keg for experimental secondary fermentations too.

[tygo]

Campden tablets are pretty cheap.  Don't know what you're paying for your store bought water but for me it's a lot cheaper to use the campden where I can.

To me the extra $2.50 or so each for 3 x 2-gallon bottled spring water is a small price to pay for good beer. 

I agree that it's a small price to pay.  For my very pale beers, like pilsner, I still do buy distilled water, which costs like $10-12 for the batch.  For beers where I can use my tap water the water costs whatever miniscule amount 15 gallons of tap water costs from the water company plus $0.03 for the campden.

[malzig]

I think what's confusing people about the campden is that the ammonia produced by the campden's reduction of chloramine is what boils off, leaving chloride behind.  The sulfite is oxidized to sulfate.

[veldy]

Is this the same sulfate as is found in gypsum and commonly added to brewing liquor? 

Campden tablets are sulfites and gypsum is sulfate.  They are not at all the same in brewing.

Veldy

[punatic]

Activated Carbon (AC) does remove chlorine and chloramine from water.  That comes from my former professor at University of Florida who specializes in activated carbon treatment and research.

Hah!  What is a Gator doing in Indiana?

Personally, I hate the smell of sulfur which is commonly encountered here in Florida from low-tide and/or non-potable water sources used for lawn irrigation.  I also seem to be particularly sensitive to it when tasting beer styles known to have acceptably high sulfate levels (e.g., bitters). 

Martin, can you explain the difference to us between sulfate and sulftite?  I don't buy the notion that sulfites are boiled off.  That is new information to me.

The sulfur smell that you describe is hydrogen sulfide.  H₂S.  Often refered to as "rotten eggs smell."  It is common in shallow groundwater.  Much of Florida's irrigation water comes from shallow wells.  H₂S is also a product of bacterial breakdown of organic matter, such as sargasso seaweed rotting at low tide, or anaerobic mud flats exposed at low tide.

Deep water wells in Florida also have H₂S dissolved in their water.   The H₂S is a dissolved gas that is removed by aeration of the well water over a cascade or through an aeration tower, or it is reacted with ozone injection.  H₂S removal is quite necessary to make much of Florida's potable water platable.

Both sulfite and sulfate are divalent anions.  The sulfate molecule has an additional oxygen atom:

Sulfite = SO₃^2-

Sulfate = SO₄^2-