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Author Topic: Contamination from garden hose?  (Read 1761 times)

Offline Lazy Ant Brewing

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Contamination from garden hose?
« on: March 06, 2015, 08:05:30 am »
Assuming that you flush it out for say 2 minutes, is there any problem with using a regular rubber or vinyl garden hose to get the water from an outside tap to fill your brewing pot?
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Offline brew inspector

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Re: Contamination from garden hose?
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2015, 08:31:27 am »
There is a distinct flavor that may be imparted to the brew using a garden hose.  A better option would be the white hose used by campers for drinking water

Offline majorvices

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Re: Contamination from garden hose?
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2015, 08:36:48 am »
I never use a garden hose for brewing water. Garden hose water tastes like ... well, we've all drank from one as a kid. It tastes like garden hose water.

Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Contamination from garden hose?
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2015, 08:47:10 am »
I seem to recall one of the podcasts (BBR?) had an episode where they talked about garden hose water being safe to consume if you flushed out the water that had sat in the hose before using it for brewing but I don't know how well that avoids that rubbery garden hose flavor.
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Offline Lazy Ant Brewing

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Re: Contamination from garden hose?
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2015, 08:52:40 am »
The one batch I made with it was drinkable, but wouldn't win any awards.  I'll go to plan B in the future: either fill smaller containers  in the kitchen sink and carry it or invest in a better hose like they use for campers.

Thanks
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Offline majorvices

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Re: Contamination from garden hose?
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2015, 09:32:13 am »
I built mind from clear braided (potable) water hose at Home Depot and ran it into a water filter then ran another braided line off the water filter. Simple. Cheap. Effective.

Offline Pinski

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Re: Contamination from garden hose?
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2015, 09:39:11 am »
Just get yourself a $10 RV water supply hose at HD/Lowes and you wont have to worry about the classic "hose" off flavor and the material is intended for potable use. 
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Offline toby

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Re: Contamination from garden hose?
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2015, 09:40:12 am »
Assuming that you flush it out for say 2 minutes, is there any problem with using a regular rubber or vinyl garden hose to get the water from an outside tap to fill your brewing pot?
The problem will be the taste.  I have a guy in the homebrew club who uses a regular rubber hose, and will get some untainted brews from them, but after some period of time, everything will taste like rubber hose.  He tried to change it out before it breaks down to that point, but there's no way to predict it, so he has had some bad batches here and there because of it.

I just use RV potable hose.

Offline curtism1234

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Re: Contamination from garden hose?
« Reply #8 on: March 06, 2015, 10:23:04 am »
I think I'd rather just make a few trips using a couple/few gallons at a time