[BrewBama]

So, the COVID is starting to cramp my brewing style. I like to use distilled water to build my brewing liquor but the grocery wasn’t very reliable befor Covid and it definitely isn’t reliable in the midst of the pandemic.

I don’t want to use RO system because I don’t want the maintenance.

So... I am thinking about distilling my own water. I’ve looked at distillers online and quite frankly, to get the 8.5 gal I normally use for a batch of beer, they are cost prohibitive.

I have done a layout and parts search. I think I can build my own still for half the price of a turn key by using my RIMs element and controller and getting plumbing from Bobby at Brew Hardware. ...but I would need a large boil vessel and condenser.  To get those items I’d have to buy from our brothers in the distillation hobby. I think I’m all in for ~$700.00 in parts and if it takes 16 hrs that’s ~ $1.60 in power, and less than $1.00 in water to distill and condense.

If I brew for ~10 more yrs at ~17 or so batches a year so, it amortizes to ~ $4.00 a batch. That’s cheaper than store bought.

Has anyone considered this process?  What are the pitfalls?  (aka: am I crazy?)


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[Bob357]

No need to buy and maintain an RO system. I'm sure you have a local grocery store or Walmart that has an RO dispensing machine and sells it for about
$ .40/gallon. I've been going that route for several years.

[BrewBama]

There you go again, Bob. Inserting common sense.

(Thanks!  I didn’t think of that)


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[tommymorris]

So, the COVID is starting to cramp my brewing style. I like to use distilled water to build my brewing liquor but the grocery wasn’t very reliable befor Covid and it definitely isn’t reliable in the midst of the pandemic.

I don’t want to use RO system because I don’t want the maintenance.

So... I am thinking about distilling my own water. I’ve looked at distillers online and quite frankly, to get the 8.5 gal I normally use for a batch of beer, they are cost prohibitive.

I have done a layout and parts search. I think I can build my own still for half the price of a turn key by using my RIMs element and controller and getting plumbing from Bobby at Brew Hardware. ...but I would need a large boil vessel and condenser.  To get those items I’d have to buy from our brothers in the distillation hobby. I think I’m all in for ~$700.00 in parts and if it takes 16 hrs that’s ~ $1.60 in power, and less than $1.00 in water to distill and condense.

If I brew for ~10 more yrs at ~17 or so batches a year so, it amortizes to ~ $4.00 a batch. That’s cheaper than store bought.

Has anyone considered this process?  What are the pitfalls?  (aka: am I crazy?)


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That’s a big up front investment if it breaks.

You have probably already tried tap. But, maybe Covid is a good prod to try it again. I use SMB to remove chlorine and then add gypsum and calcium chloride to get to my desired profile (usually yellow balanced). I am very happy.  My water comes from the TN river so it’s fairly low in minerals. If yours is spring water it may have more mineral content.

[kramerog]

This is crazy, but ...

Building a condenser is pretty easy.  That's just a short counterflow chiller.   

[Wilbur]

No need to buy and maintain an RO system. I'm sure you have a local grocery store or Walmart that has an RO dispensing machine and sells it for about
$ .40/gallon. I've been going that route for several years.

Around here (Central IL) all the grocery stores have closed their dispensing machines and are selling prefilled gallons only for "sanitary" reasons. The gallon jugs are ~$0.88 each, so that's my plan until the dispensing machines open back up. In terms of cost, if you brew indoors you're going to be pumping a bunch of heat into your house. You might find your AC running more.

[BrewBama]

Good point. I brew inside but this would be a lot longer process so would produce a lot more heat.

I am going to the grocery today to ck out their machine. Hopefully they’ll have a maintenance log or something that shows how often filters/membranes are changed, etc. This is probably the road I’m headed down.

I found out something else while researching condensers. If you buy equipment from the distiller retailers they are required to log your contact information. They are also required to hand at least three years worth of information to the Feds upon request. Uh...no thanks. I don’t need to be on any lists like that even if I am just using it for water.

Thx for talking me off the ledge folks. That’s why I ran it up the flagpole here before pulling the trigger.


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[Slowbrew]

I found out something else while researching condensers. If you buy equipment from the distiller retailers they are required to log your contact information. They are also required to hand at least three years worth of information to the Feds upon request. Uh...no thanks. I don’t need to be on any lists like that even if I am just using it for water.

They gotta make sure and get their taxes.   

Paul

[denny]

Good point. I brew inside but this would be a lot longer process so would produce a lot more heat.

I am going to the grocery today to ck out their machine. Hopefully they’ll have a maintenance log or something that shows how often filters/membranes are changed, etc. This is probably the road I’m headed down.

I found out something else while researching condensers. If you buy equipment from the distiller retailers they are required to log your contact information. They are also required to hand at least three years worth of information to the Feds upon request. Uh...no thanks. I don’t need to be on any lists like that even if I am just using it for water.

Thx for talking me off the ledge folks. That’s why I ran it up the flagpole here before pulling the trigger.


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Your best bet might be to get a TDS meter to verify what they tell you about the water from the machines.  I know a number of people who have found those stickers to not reflect reality.

[jeffy]

I needed to refill a five gallon carboy of drinking water and found the machine at Publix was "out of order" but the one in front of the Latin supermarket was still working.  It said it was serviced within the past week.  Do you think there's something about Covid that makes one store make them off limits?
I wonder how much caution one needs to have to purchase drinking water from a machine.

[goose]

Do you have a Culligan store near you?  We have one here and another one called Clearwater.
I can get 5 gallon jugs of RO water from them for $1.50 each. If I get 10 jugs filled, my 11th one is free.

I also have an in house RO here but don't like to tax our drinking water supply for brewing.  This might be a cheaper way to go instead of building a distilling system.

[tommymorris]

Dwain, I am curious, why not buy a RO system? There are some custom for homebrewers. Is distilled that much better? From what I understand you can get down to below 10 PPM TDS. That is very low.

[BrewBama]

I thought the distillation process would simply be boiling water and condensing it.

I don’t want the RO system due to the maintenance/changing filters/membranes, etc. I’m sure they work great. I just don’t want something else to maintain.


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[reverseapachemaster]

I've been contemplating the same options for my own brewing. There aren't many places nearby that fill five gallon jugs of RO water and I'm always suspicious of the maintenance on the grocery store style machines. With covid it's been tough finding prepackaged RO/distilled water and I hate the volume of waste created buying that way.

With a distillation system I'm not in love with keeping a heating system running for that long and don't want to spend an entire day watching over it. There is always a risk it falls over and creates a fire risk but most likely if the still runs too long without monitoring it could start distilling everything you want to keep out of the water. (I think--I'm not an expert here.) I've also seen people say to get high quality distilled water still requires a polishing filtration which means having to deal with a filtration system anyway. The good thing about modifying your homebrewing system to distill water is that if you ever get tired of doing that there is a market to sell all that equipment and recoup some of your investment.

I'm not hot on RO systems for the same reason as you, I don't want to deal with the maintenance. But I also grow tired of having to rely on finding distilled/RO water at the store. I am planning to build a keezer-based bar in my basement in the next year or so and if I have room I intend to hook up an RO system under the sink. If I'm having to regularly maintain the bar and taps then testing and replacing RO filters isn't really that big of a deal.