# Water filtering



## gazbea

Wow... What a difference!

I got my old Brita jug out the other day and bought a 4 pack of Maxtra filters (currently on offer in Morrisons at £10 for 4 - half price) for filtering water as I didn't like the taste of the water from the tap.

Cleaned the jug, ran a couple of priming jugs through, put in the fridge and sampled when cold. Tasted so much better, tasted less chemical.

Used filtered water for the first time in the espresso machine today and all I can say is WOW! Cleaner taste, getting so much more flavour through, darker crema (more reddish brown).

Overall, fantastic espresso









It is amazing how the smallest of changes outside of your technique can make the world of difference!

Changes so far that have made a difference outside of the bean, machine and technique.


Spirit level out on the machine and level up

Filter the water


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## Glenn

It's amazing just how much of a change in taste the water makes.

Freak yourself out by hand brewing using a number of bottled waters, tap water, ro water and brita filtered water side by side with the same grind, temperature, extraction time and technique.

All coffee's will taste slightly different.


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## gazbea

I know one thing for certain. I won't be going back to straight from the tap until I get my filter tap fitted!


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## onemac

Up here in sunny Lossiemouth (waaaayyy oop norff) the water is lovely and soft. I can't really tell the difference between tap water and filtered water after they've both been in the fridge for a few hours but down in Lincolnshire where my sis lives it's horrible but still not bad compared to some places.

Al


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## gazbea

Well I live in Manchester so we basically get buxton water. Still sift water but you will always get treatment and additives.

That and all the impurities it picks up along the way through the water pipes.

Makes a big difference to my water. Tasted a little of chlorine before filtering and now it is great









All depends on area I guess


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## maarten_booij

Totally agree. The water in my place tastes like it came directly out of the local swimming pool :S I use only filtered water in my gaggia (and all my other electrical appliances) which has a significant effect on the espresso.


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## vintagecigarman

And a thanks from me as well on the cheap filters - best price I have seen for a long time. Bought 8 today

Sent via Tapatalk


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## MikeHag

Up in Scotland our water is very pure, but there are still variations in taste. In Stirling(shire) we had a TDS of 49ppm on a supply from a water company, and here at the new home in Perthshire it's 89ppm from a private water supply from a well and spring up the hill







Both very soft and pure. But the 49ppm tasted so much better as water than the 89ppm does. It's a much misunderstood and underestimated subject and I've got the Water Quality Handbook coming my way this weekend from the US, so hopefully I'll be able to help shed a little more light on it soon.


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## Outlaw333

Yeah down here on Exmoor we have gorgeous water aswell, I do use a filter to try and minimise the chlorine and chloramine intake and might one of these days invest in a borehole but i feel so lucky being a fishkeeper aswell having no need for an RO filter like so many in the hobby, de-chlor is all that is necessary, I haven't actually consumed much hard water coffee or coffee from a high chemical area but i would assume it is a nightmare?


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## MikeHag

Well I can tell you in no uncertain terms, London water tastes like pig piss.


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## Outlaw333

Yeah I spent my time growing up half here and half London as a kid(before i was mad on coffee) and while i lack your experience on the pig piss, I agree the water was terrible!


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## jumpingbean

The water is very hard here too, 60 miles west of London.

We've taken to using bottled water (we don't use that much) with a low indicated calcium content.

It's supposedly glacier water from Norway and has 6.4 mg/l Calcium.

Does any one else use bottled water? I'm nervous of water softeners as I think they only replace the calcium with sodium.


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## SlowRoast

Water softeners are not suitable to use for potable water. Water filters are for drinking however, I've never used bottled or unfiltered tap water in my machine.

I don't really want to try unfiltered because it'd probably destroy my machine. Within less than a week our shower nozzles start to block up if it's not cleaned properly.

The best tap water I've had was in North Wales. Worst is here, where I live!


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## Fran

I use Volvic - recommended by Taylor St Baristas. BRews have increased in quality 1000% since I've ditched my filter jug and London water.


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## Earlepap

Interesting, I'm going to investigate this tomorrow, as near to science lab as possible. Controlled, repeated variables, and comparisons between Volvic and London tap water, and pig piss too. Organic pigs though.


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## lucky13

south wales tap water tastes good to me. Can't tell the difference once it's been in the fridge. I keep filling the bottle in the fridge, the mrs has no idea.


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## Earlepap

So today I compared tap and bottled water in a brew. Tesco didn't have any Volvic so I went for their budget Scottish Perthshire stuff - 40p for two litres I think.

Hypothesis: Bottled water is better than London pig piss tap water.

Method: Used pour over brew; 15g of Coleman Roasters Kenya Gulmarg Estate (roasted two weeks ago) to 200ml of water, 30 seconds off boil, 3 minute extraction, Biz Markie playing in the background throughout.

Results: No huge noticeable difference. Both tasted good; the bottled water cup did taste a bit smoother and more fruity/less bitter. But could this be psychosomatic? Also, since I don't have a thermometer these taste differences could be due to variation in temperature. I probably should've chosen a more repeatable/consistent brewing method, and perhaps not been chewing gum and smoking throughout the experiment.

Conclusion: I should leave experiments to scientists.


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## seeq

Haha, nice try though..... I have to be honest, and I don't mean to be insulting, but I just learnt absolutely nothing!


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## Earlepap

seeq said:


> I just learnt absolutely nothing!


Welcome to the Earlepap School of Coffee Learnings.


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## lookseehear

Has anyone read this from James Hoffman's blog? He has a really good idea (although I doubt many people would get it) that when you buy a bag of beans from a shop you could buy or refill a bottle of water from their reverse osmosis system. A 2l bottle would fit in a rucksack and would probably be good for a 250g bag of beans if you're making espresso. Aside from the scale benefits it would be nice to try a shot in a shop then use the same water at home. After all consistency is the goal right?

I'm sure some will think this is overkill (looking at you expo!) but I'm resorting to purely using mineral water at the moment due to hard water in Kent so I'm really looking into the alternatives.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2


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## MikeHag

I'm so pleased he has spoken out about water. This topic needs a heavy weight like James to get the business taking it more seriously.


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## garydyke1

Considering how much of a cup of coffee is actually water then this topic is probably more important than a degree here or there!

I would love to be able to pop into Saint caffee or 6/8 and purchase 'espresso perfect' water, genius idea.

I genuinely feel that the tap water from severn trent, although good compared to London quality, is causing me some issues with my shots. Brewed isnt so much of an issue as I use bottled mineral water and am happy with the results, its just too expensive and too mineral heavy to be any good for my machine


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## cjbailey1

lookseehear said:


> A 2l bottle would fit in a rucksack and would probably be good for a 250g bag of beans if you're making espresso.


Fairly certain I use a heck of a lot more water than that per 250g including flushing, temp surfing (I preheat the cups to induce the boiler for a known start point) and steaming. Mind you, no shops on the Island seem to care about coffee quality as such anyway.


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## Earlepap

I saw that article and found it a bit disheartening to be honest. It left me feeling that I'll never be able to brew a truly high standard coffee at home.


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## cjbailey1

Forgot to add...

I dislike the fact that I'm now researching home RO systems for the new kitchen







I don't have enough money for this!!!


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## lookseehear

@cjbailey I think if you have a hx machine or do a lot of temp surfing/flushing then you're probably right but any PID dual boiler machine probably shouldn't need any more than about 15ml per shot.

@earlepap I know what you mean but at the same time, standards are relative. What you brew now is likely better than pretty much any shop ten years ago.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2


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## Beemer

MikeHag said:


> Up in Scotland our water is very pure, but there are still variations in taste. In Stirling(shire) we had a TDS of 49ppm on a supply from a water company, and here at the new home in Perthshire it's 89ppm from a private water supply from a well and spring up the hill
> 
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> Both very soft and pure. But the 49ppm tasted so much better as water than the 89ppm does. It's a much misunderstood and underestimated subject and I've got the Water Quality Handbook coming my way this weekend from the US, so hopefully I'll be able to help shed a little more light on it soon.


Mike, What questions should I ask Scottish Water about the quality? Are drinking water treatment works in each town or are they built nearer feed reservoirs?


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## MikeHag

That old thread developed into a very large piece of research for me involving getting a water risk assessment from the council, spending months poring over the water quality handbook and other chemistry texts, and currently filling three 25 gallon bottles at our cafe tap for use at home (including the espresso machine, brewed coffee and speciality tea).

The best place for you to start is here: http://www.dwqr.org.uk/

If you're on mains water it should give you some figures for your water. Calcium carbonate (hardness), pH, chlorine etc. Compare these with the SCAA water quality guidelines (via google). Then call dwqr and ask them for the Electrical Conductivity reading for your postcode. Multiply it by a factor that I cannot currently remember... I think it is approx 0.79 but I'll check and update this asap... to give you the TDS (approximately). Again compare with SCAA.

To be honest this isn't a topic I can shortcut for anyone, which is why I haven't continued blogging on the topic since my original blog post several months ago. It's complex and the industry needs to find a way to demystify it. The SCAA water book is good but too techy for most baristas. There's a gap here for a well written text on the subject.


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## joshuachan28

I have just been looking at the Thames water website. It has an offer for a scale removing thingamagig. I'm not entirely sure whether it actually reduces the ppm of the water but it apparently reduces scale. http://www.scaleguard.co.uk/


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## MikeHag

I'd be interested to learn more about what it actually does to the water. The following statement is a bit vague.

"The electronic unit works by sending out a computerised modulated signal which changes the physical properties of scale forming calcium molecules. This action stops any further build up of scale by preventing the molecules from adhering to themselves or any other surface."


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## joshuachan28

It sounds almost rather magical.


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## cjbailey1

Doing a bit of research into RO systems for use down on the Island the basic advice is don't bother!! Our water is apparently the hardest in the country and even with stupidly expensive softener systems in it seems that most RO systems need things replacing far too regularly. It does explain why I got a lot more of the subtleties of the coffee when I was brewing on the Isle of Skye than down here on the Isle of Wight!


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## MikeHag

As much as I can see that RO is a great improvement as a water quality solution, I do think it's still fairly clunky. I mean, you can't (typically) use pure RO-treated water for coffee. It doesn't have sufficient and appropriate levels of minerals/ions to enable ideal extraction of coffee solids. So after removing all these minerals, you then need to add some back. This is currently being achieved by some through mixing it with the original tap water that has a high TDS. It may work well - I don't know - but I can't see it being a very sustainable and user-friendly way of operating.


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## 20Eyes

joshuachan28 said:


> I have just been looking at the Thames water website. It has an offer for a scale removing thingamagig. I'm not entirely sure whether it actually reduces the ppm of the water but it apparently reduces scale. http://www.scaleguard.co.uk/


Various companies supply products that 'work' on this basis to prevent limescale in domestic heating boilers.

I have a friend who is a senior British Gas engineer - 20 years in the game. He's told me that they absolutely, categorically, do NOT work.


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## PolarBearDave

We've got one of those electronic 'wrap the wire round the water pipe' things - was in the house when we bought it and looks pretty old. Still get scale in the kettle......

Although, saying that, I turned it off for a while last year as I was of the same opinion as above - the combi boiler broke a few months later due to scale in the heat exchanger! Probably pure coincidence, but I turned it back on anyway for the new boiler.


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