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I have checked my local water authority and my tap water is chloraminated:

The average chlorine concentration for this Public Water Supply Zone from January 2013 to December 2013 was 0.07 milligrammes per litre free chlorine and 0.450 milligrammes per litre total chlorine. This drinking water supply is chloraminated.

I have read from various posts that the only way to prevent the medicinal taste is to remove this using Potassium metabisulfite but all the references I've found refer to processing 10 or 20 gallons of water at a time whereas I'm working in a small space and to small scale so would only need 500ml to 2l at any step.

Would I be better off processing a few liters at a time and using as needed or should I process as I go?

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    Have you had problems with this medicinal taste? If not, you might be trying to solve a problem that doesn't really exist. That said, I always filter my drinking and brewing water -- I find chloramines very offensive.
    – notlesh
    Apr 11, 2014 at 14:49
  • I haven't yet, I'm a total novice. I'm about to start up a yeast culture as per wellnessmama.com/8942/how-to-make-a-ginger-bug and don't want to ruin my first try with something that is seemingly fairly easy to avoid
    – Anjicat
    Apr 11, 2014 at 16:41

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AJ deLange calculated that 4.7mg/L (~18mg/gl) of potassium metabisulfite (4.0mg/L of sodium metabisulfite) is needed to reduce a "worst case" scenario of 3mg/L of chloramine. (PDF, via the Wayback Machine archive of AJ's site).

I've been using this to add K-meta along with my brewing salts. That works out to 188mg for 10gl of brewing liquor. A Campden tablet is 695mg, and thus can treat 147L/39gl of water. Reduction occurs in under one minute. Treat as you go, or overkill with a Campden tablet. :) Once treated, the water will be chlorine free indefinitely.

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You might be better off just buying filtered water. You can usually get 5 gallons for about $1.25

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  • I think you're presuming location. In Europe, I can't get water at that price.
    – mdma
    Apr 12, 2014 at 13:41
  • I guess I did. I wonder if this is available even in other US locations? But around Southern California we have big RO Filtered water machines that are usually 25¢ per gallon. Failing that I've purchased bottled water from the 99¢ Store at $1 per gallon.
    – MatticusVP
    Apr 14, 2014 at 15:15

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