| Using Water in Wine Making There is much discussion about water in our world today. Treatment technologies and choices are available for every application. The ideal choice for one purpose may not be ideal for another. Wineries use very little water, as grape juice is not concentrated. BOP (brew on premise shops) & home winemakers do use water. As much as 67% of the final volume of lower end wine kits is water that is added by the wine maker. Some things you find in water are not good for your wine-to-be; chlorine, bacteria, and iron specifically. So read on and consider your choices. Hard or Soft Water and Wine Making Hard water is defined by the amount of dissloved calcium & magnesium. Because yeast needs minerals, especially magnesium, hard water is considered good for wine and beer. Reverse osmosis (r-o), distilled, & soft water all have most of the minerals removed, thus suffer a deficit of magnesium. If using r-o, distilled, or softened waters, we recommend replacing the missing magnesium. Adding a quarter teaspoon of Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate) per 23 liters to the must on day one will accomplish this. Well Water and Wine Making Well and spring water is not likely to be sterile. Standard well-water testing looks only for one kind of bacteria, and identifies your ‘total coliform bacteria’ count. Coliform bacteria exist in soil, vegetation, and the intestinal tract of animals (fecal coli). Finding this group of bacteria indicates a well is contaminated from dirty surface water percolating down to your well water. Standard tests do not look for the hundreds of other bacteria and contaminants that could be in your well water. Thinking your well water is safe because ‘it has been tested’ is a big mistake. Untreated wells may be quite pure - some of the time - but laden with bacteria or iron at other times based on season, local weather, and other variables. Iron bacteria are common in wells. They thrive in iron rich water, occasionally producing a sulphur odour. Sterility Guaranteed - not Neither reverse osmosis nor water softeners can guarantee sterile water. Chlorination or radiation by ultra violet light does kill bacteria. Spring water, ‘purified water’, and bottled water is widely available. These may be good choices for wine making; however, it is hard to comment on these products. A quote from the “Natural Resources Defense Council” website reads: “NRDC's study included testing of more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water. While most of the tested waters were found to be of high quality, some brands were contaminated: about one-third of the waters tested contained levels of contamination -- including synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic…” Using multiple methods is the best option for safe, clean water. Municipal water systems in North America test and chlorinate their water supply. If you trust your municipality’s water management, start with this inexpensive source and then filter out the undesirable content. The unfiltered municipal water may contain dead cells, sediment, heavy metals, and chlorine. There is a plethora of commercial filtration systems. Paper, fiber, or membrane filters will remove sediment, iron, and dead cells. Most bacteria range from 0.5 microns to 5 microns in size. A combination of filters removing down to 1.0 micron is fairly efficient at improving your water quality. An activated carbon filter will remove chlorine and other undesirables. Reverse osmosis is a kind of filtration. Filters and r-o systems will become contaminated if they are not cleaned or changed regularly. All other concerns having been dealt with, one question still remains. How does your water taste? |
