Nobody likes the taste or a sniff of chlorine in their drink, whether a glass of water, a cup of tea or a serving of beer. Now that our city fathers have chosen to add Chlorine to our water it is necessary for we Brewers to get rid of it. Read on for methods from least effort to pricey! I have tried all except the filter. I am watching my mother in laws shiney new system with interest.

Firstly, is it chlorinated or choriminated? The latter is the Rolls Royce treament(a mixture of Chlorine and ammonia) and you’ll have to take the chemistry option or get a filter to remove it. Most local authorities ain’t going to spend more than they have to so it’ll probably be chlorine. You can check by pouring yourself a glass of water from the cold tap, sniff the fumes, tip back and forth a few times between glasses and leave out over night. If it was chloramine it would still smell in the morning.

Do nothing. You’d be surprised how many never notice the smell or taste. I think in part this is because they splash and run taps on full and give the water a bit of aeration(see below).

Fill a jerry can or large container and leave the top off a couple of days and the chlorine will disapate. If you run it from the hot tap you can use once it is cool. Likewise you can boil the water for 15 minutes with the lid off. But that takes a while to come to the boil depending on the size of your pot/s and heat source.

If you must have it now or within the hour you can aerate or spend some money on chemicals. Lets assume you’re cheap (I am) so get yourself a couple of buckets and a container and head to the shower room. Hold the bucket close to the shower head (how depends on your set up) and run it hot into a bucket until 2/3rds full. Then tip between buckets a couple of times and then into the containers. Splash as much as you like. Then repeat until you have enough water.

Then there is the chemistry option: sodium metabisulphide or its tablet form, a camden tablet. About a teaspoon of powder diluted or a tablet for 25 litres. It reacts with the chlorine to become water. Ain’t science grand. Works when cleaning stained cups also. Alternatively, a slightly smaller dose of ascorbic acid(vitamin C)will react with and clear the chlorine/chloramine.

Or, you could go to one of the council taps for unchlorinated water or buy bottled water from the Supermarket.

Lastly, and this has plumbers dancing with joy, install a filtering system. But be warned you need to replace the activated carbon regularly. Cleaning them is not a good idea.

So thats it. Chlorine is not hard to remove. You just have to spend some time or money.