Reddit mentions of Litmus pH Test Strips, Universal Application (pH 1-14), 2 Packs of 100 Strips

You're probably opening a can of worms with that question. I can tell you that in beer-making using bought spring water VS the well water where I lived made a significant improvement.

BUT!!!.... we're not making beer, we're going to distill it anyway, right? So, if you have no reason to think there's something in you tap water that is undesirable it may be okay to use it.

HOWEVER!!... What is critical is the pH of the water. You can buy some cheap pH test strips if you want. My water was way high, close to 9. Your yeast likes it around 5.2. I use this 5.2 pH stabilizer stuff, it seems to work and will last you a long, long time. You'll probably get more alchohol because the ideal pH lets it ferment more completely and quickly.

That said, you can probably skip all that and use your tap water and it will still turn out fine, you can probably buy spring water or distilled water and it will turn out fine. But keep in mind those store bought waters do nothing to maintain a consistent pH, and that's what your yeast really cares about.

All in all, buying water is probably cheap insurance, but since I've been using my tap water and getting good results I would only do it as an experiment. Maybe you would do the opposite, use bought water for awhile and then try the tap one time and see what difference you notice.

Even in this thread there seems to be some disagreement over it! From what I'm understanding in the other comments, carbonation itself causes a drop in ph, which will damage enamel (see: pH levels source and 'danger zone' links from the dentist student), so yes, carbonated water, on its own, will damage enamel through changing acidity of your mouth (another peer-reviewed source that I found through browsing, since I prefer to give academic sources where possible lol; on the other hand, some brands of seltzer water apparently actively try to balance the pH of their drinks to correct for the acidification produced by carbonation, so that they are no longer damaging. Ultimate recommendation is probably to pick up some litmus strips for cheap on Amazon, check the pH of your drink yourself, and if it's acidic, mitigate any enamel damage by drinking with a straw and rinsing your mouth after drinking the beverage.

As others have said, starbucks coffee usually gives away old stuff for free (bring a rubermaid tote or your car will likely get some unwanted coffee juice leaked through). The vinegar thing depends on the water you use. If your water comes from an aquifer, its going to have some (maybe lots) of calcium in it that causes it to be basic. You want it to be acidic, hence the vinegar. The problem is that vinegar (acetic acid) is a weak acid and not very concentrated. If you don't use enough acid to neutralize the base in the water, you're still going to be screwed. The easy thing to do is to buy some litmus paper on amazon (try here). My water is so hard I had to get concentrated hydrochloric acid (roughly 12 M, and they sell it at lowes surprisingly!) It would take about 8 mL of conc HCl to 4 gallons of hard water in order to drive down the pH.

Don't use softened water (too much salt!). What I ended up doing is collecting rain water in a rain barrel. Water your plants daily (they like well drained moist soil).

A big thing to keep an eye out for... Look at the color of your leaves. If you're doing the pH thing right, your leaves will be a nice green color but if the soil/water is too basic (too high on the pH scale), they'll start to turn red. When this starts to happen you need to correct your problem quickly or you're screwed for the season. Once the leaves turn red, they don't normally turn back, however, new growth will grow green. If the plants aren't happy, they won't make fruit.

If you have other questions, hit me up. I'm doing this for my fourth year and I'm finally getting most of the kinks worked out of my system. Lots of failures but I'm expecting much better results this year! Best of luck!!

The ph of tap water depends on where you live.. but I know my whole state more or less has safe water in the taps. You can a get pack of like 100 test strips from amazon for like $5. Just make sure the PH is 7 or above.

Any food grade alkali is fair game to substitute for any other if you can get the needed pH. Usually the recommended choice in a recipe is determined by either locally accessible ingredients or ease of measurement at the scale needed (I am talking through my hat there, but have reasons to believe I am correct, which I will explain).

As an additional hobby, I do a lot of tie dyeing. The reactive dyes are the most color fast for natural fibers , but require a specific pH (11) in which to work. For just over $5 you get 100 pH test strips. For a Catholic homeschool meeting 20-ish years ago, I wanted to make pretzels with the kids as a demonstration of a traditional Lenten food. I was a bit scared about kids and lye, so I started looking at the pH needed to get pretzel browning, because I wanted them to participate at every step of the making. I checked the ph of baking soda solutions and lye solutions with my hand dandy on hand litmus test strips and was not liking it, so researched and stumbled across a way of reducing baking soda by baking that gets you a lot closer to the ideal pH of 13 that lye yields.

An insight was born. I do not use my pH strips as often as my thermapen, but because I have them, I have learned to measure pH for good results whenever browning is an issue. There are a lot more factors that influence the result, but the pH value is the most important in making substitutions. The solution temperature and length of the dunk are the next most important - and there are lots of papers out there explaining the science, but I am still at a level that process feel and product happiness determine temp and time.

I am not a specialist, since I just begin in the AB community, but dry people lack oil and its genetic, and dehydrated people lack water.

Be sure to drink enough water each day (8 glasses at least) but for your ph concern, you can maybe just check on google of people looked for the ph of their product. Or, if you wanted a product anyway, you can buy some strips especially for that on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Litmus-Strips-Universal-Application-Packs/dp/B00S730YWG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1479873268&sr=8-3&keywords=ph+strips

I saw there's also a digital ph tester.

I keep some in a spray bottle and had mine last months. I check it with these. Never had a prob.

Litmus pH Test Strips, Universal Application (pH 1-14), 2 Packs of 100 Strips https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S730YWG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_DPgAwb07HPNZW

It bares mention I always over mix as well. When kegging, I'll use about enough for 2.5 gal in 1.5. Better to be safe than frugal.

I think all hair experimenters especially no pooers should own some pH test strips. Since we're not using a product that has been regulated and safety checked (even minimally) we should be able to check at least one factor (pH). pH test strips can be bought and many big box stores as they are necessary for pool maintenance. I bought mine on Amazon.

200 test strips, great ratings, under $6: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S730YWG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_Sz1ZCb97EPPCK

No problem.

You might look into getting a book of universal indicator strips like these to test products. You dip the paper into the product and compare the color to the color-pH legend. This gives you a ballpark pH that is good enough for this application. For ex it wont give you a pH of 5.5 but you will be able to tell it's between 5 and 6.

When you mix something with water, it can change the pH by a lot so I test the cleanser while it's on my face and lathered with water rather than straight out of the container. Tap water pH also varies a lot, which in turn affects the pH of your product if it gets mixed with tap water.

Regarding pH testing...

I'd like to test a bunch of my stuff, but the Cleanser pH guide recommends a multicolored pH tester. The single color testers are much cheaper such as here.

Is it bad if I choose this one? If I choose it, should I not share my results on the list?