Tap water in wine

[brottman]

Need someone to set the record straight for me. I've seen guides say it is okay and desirable to use tap water in a must. I've also seen guides that say they prefer no-rinse sanitizers like star-san because if you were to rinse your tools with tap water it's not sanitary. *confused*

 

[MrKevin]

Brottman
My two cents. If tap water is safe to drink it is safe to use in must, But tap water that has a "taste" , it may impart that "taste" to your must. If it has lots of chlorine it may make problems for the yeast. My tap water has lots of chlorine therefore I use spring water from the store. I use no rinse sanitizers but rinse anyway I could be wrong to rinse, but something about adding no-rinse sanitizers to my wine I don't like.

Kevin

 

[JohnT]

OK,

I think I understand your question..


Must is never sterile. We may add some k-meta to stun the "undesirables", but that is about it. The reason is that most bacteria (but not all) simply can not survive in the high ph / high alcohol environment of wine. Another reason is that the must does not simply lay idle for a long period of time. Active fermentation makes for a VERY difficult environment for bacteria to establish.

Clean tap water, therefore, should be fine to add to a must (but I would question the quality of your water. It is from a spring? is it chlorinated?)

For equipment, on the other hand, we prefer to have as clean as possible. Having dirty equipment laying about for a long period of time can become the perfect breeding zone for bacteria that DOES survive in wine. Rinsing the equipment in water will not remove all of this potential bacteria.

So when it comes to equipment, I like to wash in tap water, then rinse in a KILLER solution of k-meta.

 

[DoctorCAD]

If your water taste fine as is, it will be fine in wine. If it tastes bad, the wine will retain that flavor.

And NO, it's not sterile, but since we all grew up and drank that water our whole lives, our bodies take care of whatever is in there. How do you think people in rural Mexico can drink their water, but if a normal white-guy from middle America takes one sip, he gets the runs for a week???

 

[GaDawg]

If you drink and cook with your water it will be fine for winemaking. Some English beer derive some of the flavor from the minerals in the water and it just does not taste the same without them.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[brottman]

So my takeaway from all of this then, is that if I were to completely sterilize tools with star-san, and then rinse with tap, I'm not necessarily "contaminating" my tools. Not that I would, but I just want to understand exactly what is happening. Afterall, if it really was completely contaminated, we would not be using tap in the must. Is my understanding correct?

 

[richmke]

So my takeaway from all of this then, is that if I were to completely sterilize tools with star-san, and then rinse with tap, I'm not necessarily "contaminating" my tools

Do the opposite. Clean thoroughly, rinse with tap, and then sanitize (not sterilize) with star-san.

 

[BernardSmith]

Brottman, I think your takeaway is mistaken. Water that is clean and is free of certain kinds of sanitizers (chloramines, I think they are called) is fine to use to add to must when making wine. That same water is good enough to CLEAN your equipment but it very likely contains bacteria and other living matter that while not harmful to your health may contaminate your wine. So the idea is that you wash your tools and equipment to remove dirt and the like where bacteria can grow and then you sanitize those tools. That the water is not "sterile" (ie that it contains microbes and bacteria) is not a serious problem for the wine maker (although beer makers seem to want to boil the bejesus out of any water they use). This for three reasons: first, because the recommendation for wine makers is that they add campden tabs (or K-meta ) to the must to kill bacteria and microbes with SO2, second, because the yeast you pitch works to make the environment very suitable for itself AND very unfit for any other competing life form, and third, because the pH of the must is likely to be too low for many varieties of fungus or bacteria to thrive. In other words, that the water is NOT sterile and almost certainly does contain organisms those organisms are not going to pose any problem for the wine maker (they won't pose any problem for someone simply drinking the tap water because they are not life forms that pose a health risk (for example, perfectly "clean" tap water in NYC apparently contains a near-microscopic sized crustacean called a copepod , a creature that is related to the shrimp).
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/nyregion/07filter.html?_r=0

 

[brottman]

Thanks everyone. Thanks BernardSmith for giving such a clarifying answer! I think I'll likely stick to buying purified (but not distilled) water a the grocery store for my wine. It seems like the best insurance, even if tap would be okay in the must.