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  • RO Water Storage

    Hi There,
    Im looking for a little advice. The water in our town, as you can see from the thread below has a TDS averaging in the 450 range with certain minerals being very high for certain beer styles. What i am debating doing is putting a light commercial 350 GPD Ro system in to allow me to slowly fill my 550 gallon HLT. Im only brewing on a 2.5bbl system, so i dont need to fill the tank quickly. I only turn the HLT on generally the night before a brew day, so im trying to figure out the correct way to hold the water.

    There seem to be several ways to do it, some of which likely arnt good options:
    Redose with Chlorine and treat with K Meta on brewday
    Find or make a UV Light Recirc System and keep the HLT recircing.
    Other options?

    Thanks Much,
    Jeff Marquis
    Granite Coast Brewing Company

  • #2
    Easiest thing to do is filter into your HLT / CLT and ... that's it. Dose minerals in your mash and kettle to adjust the pH and flavor. We brewed 20 bbl batches off of 1,000 gal HLT and CLTs without much fuss.

    What are you concerned about?
    --Dean Brundage
    Owner / Unscrambler of Eggs
    Blake's Steaks Sandwich Shop
    (650) 823-3389

    Comment


    • #3
      We are a 3 bbl brewery and we produce RO into a 600L tank. We took a booster pump to pump it into and through our Tankless Water Heater. Then is goes into our mash, sparge or wherever we want it to do. We mix in about 65% RO water to city water. Pumping through the tankless is great as we have mash ready water. We have 5* setpoints on our temp so I shoot for 160, if I need 162 and adjust with direct fire. I run the RO unit during our brewday and come in the next morning and it is filled and shut off with a float valve. Works great.



      Originally posted by JeffGCBC View Post
      Hi There,
      Im looking for a little advice. The water in our town, as you can see from the thread below has a TDS averaging in the 450 range with certain minerals being very high for certain beer styles. What i am debating doing is putting a light commercial 350 GPD Ro system in to allow me to slowly fill my 550 gallon HLT. Im only brewing on a 2.5bbl system, so i dont need to fill the tank quickly. I only turn the HLT on generally the night before a brew day, so im trying to figure out the correct way to hold the water.

      There seem to be several ways to do it, some of which likely arnt good options:
      Redose with Chlorine and treat with K Meta on brewday
      Find or make a UV Light Recirc System and keep the HLT recircing.
      Other options?

      Thanks Much,
      Jeff Marquis
      Granite Coast Brewing Company

      Comment


      • #4
        About Tankless units

        Originally posted by 927BeerCompany View Post
        We are a 3 bbl brewery and we produce RO into a 600L tank. We took a booster pump to pump it into and through our Tankless Water Heater. Then is goes into our mash, sparge or wherever we want it to do. We mix in about 65% RO water to city water. Pumping through the tankless is great as we have mash ready water. We have 5* setpoints on our temp so I shoot for 160, if I need 162 and adjust with direct fire. I run the RO unit during our brewday and come in the next morning and it is filled and shut off with a float valve. Works great.
        If you have a standard " off the shelf " consumer model Tankless unit, its not made for R.O. water. Typical HX construction on those pieces of junk is copper and 316 SS is required for that duty. RO, DI, and all waters in that class are extremely corrosive and ion hungry and will strip any available metal in their course rather quickly. Tankless units are a mickey mouse, throw away, Engineering blunder that will always come off as cheap in terms of first cost, but in real terms will cost you far more than what is thought in the long term.
        They can be made to work in certain very narrow envelopes and they are a maintenance and repair nightmare. No sane Mechanic would ever enjoy breaking out tools for one of those units. They are META time wasters.
        Warren Turner
        Industrial Engineering Technician
        HVACR-Electrical Systems Specialist
        Moab Brewery
        The Thought Police are Attempting to Suppress Free Speech and Sugar coat everything. This is both Cowardice and Treason given to their own kind.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by brundage View Post
          Easiest thing to do is filter into your HLT / CLT and ... that's it. Dose minerals in your mash and kettle to adjust the pH and flavor. We brewed 20 bbl batches off of 1,000 gal HLT and CLTs without much fuss.

          What are you concerned about?
          So my concern is having to hold the water in a room temp tank for 2-4 days between brewdays. Itss stainless and i can seal it so im not worried about Algae bloom, but bacteria growth is a thing, right?

          We dont use a tankless unit. I have 2 15KW elements shot into an SS Hoover tank(thats also our collection tank) that creates our brewing and cleaning water. Going through a tankless is not part of our setup.

          Jeff

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by JeffGCBC View Post
            So my concern is having to hold the water in a room temp tank for 2-4 days between brewdays. Itss stainless and i can seal it so im not worried about Algae bloom, but bacteria growth is a thing, right?
            Not really something to be concerned about over the course of 2-4 days in RO water. There really isn't a lot for bacteria to eat in filtered water. HTH
            --Dean Brundage
            Owner / Unscrambler of Eggs
            Blake's Steaks Sandwich Shop
            (650) 823-3389

            Comment


            • #7
              Biologic growth is not a significant concern with RO. There aren't enough "building blocks of life" (nutrients) in that water to foster growth. If the vessel is covered or sealed, then you won't have to worry about atmospherically-derived nutrients getting to the water. And the final thing is that there is nothing to worry about if this water is used in the brewing process. It can be full of critters and the process will take care of them.

              Adding a UV unit to RO output or including a recirculating UV unit in a tank won't really do much good if the walls of the vessel get colonized, so its not a worthwhile investment in protection.
              WaterEng
              Engineering Consultant

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