Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Haha good on you.

Just googled ground water analysis and found this (extensive report) - last pages has the actual water quality and I couldn't see any iron mentioned...
Cairns Water

You could call your council and get a newer anaylisi of the water composition of your water or go to a pool shop (but I don't know if they can test for iron)

Now have access to ro water. The machine is setup for drinking water will do some brews and report back :handgestures-thumbupleft: :-B

Haha I work for the council

bluc wrote:Now have access to ro water. The machine is setup for drinking water will do some brews and report back :handgestures-thumbupleft: :-B

RO water will give you good results! Only issue I take with RO systems is that for every litre you draw off, it flushes a litre of waste water down the drain! Very wasteful...

CyBaThUg wrote:Haha I work for the council

Well then it should be easy for you to get the info! :D

EziTasting wrote:

bluc wrote:Now have access to ro water. The machine is setup for drinking water will do some brews and report back :handgestures-thumbupleft: :-B

RO water will give you good results! Only issue I take with RO systems is that for every litre you draw off, it flushes a litre of waste water down the drain! Very wasteful...

CyBaThUg wrote:Haha I work for the council

Well then it should be easy for you to get the info! :D

Perhaps i could keep the waste for my condenser cooling water tank :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Eh Ezy if you are using RO water just prefill ya washing machine mate as thats what I used to do when I lived in Sth Hedland. I found for 10 litres of water I got about 4 litres of RO water. I did find with the town water I had to buy a new kettle every 6 months as the calcium build up destroyed the element.

Anyone have a good explanation on how RO systems works and does it need mains pressure supply and what system to buy and what is the cost per liter.

wynnum1 wrote:Anyone have a good explanation on how RO systems works and does it need mains pressure supply and what system to buy and what is the cost per liter.

Ours has a pressure pump that forces the water through a series of three filters. As far as I know there is a quite a few different filters and different water profiles can be made by changing the filters. Afaik drinking water profile is what you want for brewing..
This is the one I have going to connect it up today

wynnum1 wrote:Anyone have a good explanation on how RO systems works and does it need mains pressure supply and what system to buy and what is the cost per liter.

As bluc was saying, it uses pressure to force water thru the filters. That's why you get the 'waste water'... the waste water is also used in a kind of 'back-flush'...

Just looking at what it would cost to process rain water and what needed to connect the water has to be filtered first before it is put through the membrane. The waste water i think would be useful because its been filtered and not chlorinated or having a lot of minerals.

I hooked up the ro machine and the water comes out at somewhere between 5 and 6 only have ph paper so not sure. Seems a bit acidic for drinking or mixing with dunder...

wynnum1 wrote:Just looking at what it would cost to process rain water and what needed to connect the water has to be filtered first before it is put through the membrane. The waste water i think would be useful because its been filtered and not chlorinated or having a lot of minerals.

I think the point of rain water is to 'not have to process' it... filtering maybe to get leaf litter and the like out... isn't it the cleanest of the waters (depending on where you live, of course)?!?

EziTasting wrote:

wynnum1 wrote:Just looking at what it would cost to process rain water and what needed to connect the water has to be filtered first before it is put through the membrane. The waste water i think would be useful because its been filtered and not chlorinated or having a lot of minerals.

I think the point of rain water is to 'not have to process' it... filtering maybe to get leaf litter and the like out... isn't it the cleanest of the waters (depending on where you live, of course)?!?

I'm with you I think clean rain water would be way to go. Decided against the ro water :handgestures-thumbdown: For now will stick with town water.. :techie-typing:

EziTasting wrote:

wynnum1 wrote:Just looking at what it would cost to process rain water and what needed to connect the water has to be filtered first before it is put through the membrane. The waste water i think would be useful because its been filtered and not chlorinated or having a lot of minerals.

I think the point of rain water is to 'not have to process' it... filtering maybe to get leaf litter and the like out... isn't it the cleanest of the waters (depending on where you live, of course)?!?

If you have bird poop, dead possums (or anything else that can flush in there) etc in the tank you can have stuff like salmonella, e coli, cryptosporidium and giardia in the mix
That's why first flush and screening systems are a must have if you want to drink it
Boiling before use also really helps

Shoot, sp0rk, never even thought about that!
My old man lives in Mundaring and has both bore & rain water tanks and we've never had those issues... that's not saying it doesn't happen, just we've never had that.... he does have leaf mesh on his gutters and he's cleaning them regularly and with his dogs we've never seen a possum close to the house or the shed.

So you'd have to consider that, too.

I'm in Townsville so that cairns report would b no help unfortunately

bluc wrote:

wynnum1 wrote:Anyone have a good explanation on how RO systems works and does it need mains pressure supply and what system to buy and what is the cost per liter.

Ours has a pressure pump that forces the water through a series of three filters. As far as I know there is a quite a few different filters and different water profiles can be made by changing the filters. Afaik drinking water profile is what you want for brewing..
This is the one I have going to connect it up today

The 3 filters are just prefilters of different types and are not really needed if using clean tap water.
Reverse osmosis is actually a special membrane that when water ,under pressure, is forced through the membrane it leaves behind all the impurities (salt,iron,bacteria,chloride and others) and this is flushed out with the waste water.
Mine at mains pressure (45 psi only) wastes about 4lt for every one lt made, but with the addition of a pump I get about 100psi and waste is back to 1:1, and I either use this to top up my cooling tank or goes to the garden . There are a few different ro plants and I made sure to get one that gets rid off iron because it's apparently bad for yeast and wa ground water has shitloads of it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Didn't you already show us you RO unit?? Thought you did.. not that I can find it right now...

That is the unfortunate side effect of the RO units, tho; the waste!

Do you test the water to check that its working properly.

A topic I've read with interest....
I'm in the position of having tapwater, rain-water or bore water to choose from, I used to use filtered tap water exclusively.
I'd filter with a 3-stage filter, let it sit for a week then use it. Seemed to work fine but with all things hobby distilling unless you're fretting the details, you're missing out on the fun :))

I had the bore water tested and found that it was ~ 4 ppm Fe which I thought was pretty low, the guy at the testing place told me it would leave stains, but no problem to drink...and a swimming pool type sand-filter would remove it entirely, which I guess if what i'm after considering... the pH however was 5.5, and that's going to give me green copper taint from my copper plumbing says he, but never fear, this here carbonate packed filter will fix that says he...Fix that I say, it'll f%#k it! I want the pH right exactly where it is! oh says he, distilling? well you're set....Seems I'm far from the only fellow up here to have had that chat with him. :laughing-rolling:
I ran a couple of TPW's on straight bore water (unfiltered) and they seemed to take off far quicker than any I'd run before on tap-water. Subjective? maybe....but Both fermenters vomited foam through the bubble locks, which has never happened to me before....
Now I'm thinking a 25,000 ltr tank, float-valve to fill up when the sprinklers go (my garden's on bore, the house is on town water) and a sand-filter with a little davey pressure pump, or even just gravity feed for all my still'n requirements.

Thing is, I figure whatever you use, you want consistency..you can raise or lower the pH, you can filter out whatever it is that's giving you grief, you can add what you're missing, but if the water you use changes week by week, there's no way to control without assaying and constant testing...and being the lazy chap I am, i'm all for only having to do all that once.