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Author Topic: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?  (Read 3166 times)

narvin

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How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« on: April 09, 2016, 11:19:31 am »
I have some double strength canned starter wort that I want to dilute by 50%.  My plan is to use distilled, and I want to be lazy and use it as is.  No more boiling of anything.

It was purified using steam distillation and should be free of both minerals and contaminants.  But what about the bottling?  In theory it's fine.  In practice I'm sure it's even more fine, as people have topped off with tap water and not had infections.  The large quantity of yeast in a starter will quickly outgrow contaminants, anyway.

I think I just need some reassurance  :D

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2016, 11:23:59 am »
I trust it in terms of being mineral free. It's probably ok for what you're doing but I don't know that I wouldn't want to boil first to be sure. Sort of defeats your purpose though.
Jon H.

Offline homoeccentricus

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2016, 12:31:09 pm »
I use it a lot because we can't buy ro water. It's a lot cheaper than mineral water, and if you avoid the version flavored with violet it's quite ok ;)
Frank P.

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Offline Stevie

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2016, 12:36:13 pm »
I think you are fine. As you said, in theory it is sanitary at packing.

As to the idea of doing a concentrate, I think it's a good idea. NB is selling their fast pitch wort and I know a handful of people that like using them.

Offline brewinhard

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2016, 12:43:03 pm »
I have added it directly to the fermenter before when drastically overshooting a target gravity. No issues or contamination there and that was a full 5 gallon batch. 

Offline blorvak

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2016, 01:39:27 pm »
I'm not sure that microorganisms can survive very well in distilled water in the first place, so I'd think it's fine.

Offline narcout

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2016, 02:13:35 pm »
I've used store bought bottled water to rehydrate dried yeast many times and have never had an issue with contamination.
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Offline blorvak

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2016, 02:28:33 pm »
You know, I should have hit Google before replying. A science teacher many moons ago gave me some bad facts about distilled water. I was under the impression it was fairly hostile to life, as it theoretically pulls essential minerals out of cells, but it turns out that's not all that true.

Sorry to spread misinformation!

Offline bevoduz

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2016, 05:35:18 am »
I do exactly what you want to do all the time, and have had no problems.   I use triple strength canned wort though!

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Online reverseapachemaster

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2016, 09:15:37 am »
I'll admit to having overshot evaporation in the boil and topped up with either RO or distilled water from the store without boiling it. I do sanitize the opening of the jug before topping up. No problems so far.
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Offline erockrph

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2016, 09:44:09 am »
I've done it plenty of times and have never had an issue. I used to use store-bought RO water all the time for things like meads and extract brews, and never boiled it once.
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Offline majorvices

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #11 on: April 10, 2016, 09:44:47 am »
It will be absolutely fine. If you want to feel extra safe use the stuff in the baby isle, it is supposed to be sterile.

narvin

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #12 on: April 10, 2016, 11:00:30 am »
Thanks all.  Exactly what I had figured but I wanted to make sure there were no bad experiences.

Offline euge

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2016, 12:26:38 pm »
I top up with RO straight out of the tap.

That being said I cleaned a huge booger of clear mucus-like growth out of my RO faucet with a brush a couple days ago. You would think essentially pure RO wouldn't harbor organisms.

Wrong...
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narvin

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Re: How much do you trust grocery store distilled water?
« Reply #14 on: April 11, 2016, 01:29:52 pm »
Well, that's gross.  But I didn't see any boogers in the jug of distilled I bought.

Starter is going and smells great, even with unboiled jug water AND constant stirring  :)  Or maybe I just love the smell of shear stress in the morning.