Most cities use chlorine, not choramines. sorry to say, my water company uses chloramines. They are about 400 times more stable than chlorine. Unlike chlorine, which you can boil off, chloramines stay.
I’m a home brewer and yes, it must be removed if you are using municipal water for brewing. A Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfate) will remove the chloramines chemically for brewing.
This makes me wonder the effect of chloramines on our intestinal flora. There are very few studies on this.
If the chlormine level was toxic to drink then it was also too toxic to dump! Sounds like an EPA investigation to me.
Do the chloramines interfere with fermentation or is there more to it than that?
Chloramine is a combination of ammonia and chlorine. Both are toxic. One is a gas, the other a liquid. The combination is the most lethal substance on earth. It is used in water supplies specifically to render it sterile. Lethal but sterile. Of course, sterility is anathema to health.
Local water companies typically recommend that their water not be given to pets. Baby humans is fine, just not gerbils and canaries.
“This makes me wonder the effect of chloramines on our intestinal flora. There are very few studies on this.”
It ain’t good.
Carbon filter time.