High Alkalinity and High PH

I just reviewed my local water quality report and realized that I am dealing with a high alkaline level and high ph of my water. I have noticed that most of my brews always have some sort of weird flavor to them. I am curious if this could be a cause of this?

I am also in need of some advice on how resolve this without a complicated and expensive RO system. I would also like to avoid having to buy the water from the store to brew with for convenience reasons.

I know there are probably tons of posts that have a similar question as this however it seems every persons water is different so I thought I would get some advice on my specific numbers.

Here are my numbers:

Calcium (ppm) 11.24
Magnesium (ppm) 4.1855
Hardness (as CaCO3) 45.3
Sodium (ppm) 363.5
pH (ph units) 8.6
Total Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 318.5

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

These are funny numbers. At first glace they appear to represent water from a poorly functioning water softener. But then no one measures magnesium to four decimal places nor alkalinity at the 318 level to 1 decimal place. So perhaps these are averages? Please clarify. What's the chloride level? And sulfate?

Taking these numbers at face value they represent 'throw away' water. You could get the alkalinity out with lime treatment and calcium addition but that would run up the chloride and/or sulfate level depending on which salt(s) you use to get the calcium. And there really isn't anything (that I know of anyway) besides RO or distillation that will get rid of that sodium.

The sodium level is through the roof. If it's that high the water may taste salty or metallic. High levels of sodium are sometimes perceived as bitter. Gatorade has a lot of sodium and has this taste hidden behind the sugar.

I don't know of any way to "fix" the water besides RO or dilution.

That water should be a good feed water for a RO system. Get out your pocketbook!

Yeah these numbers are the average. The report doesnt give me chloride or sulfate levels. However it gives me the following in addition to the numbers I already posted.

Arsenic 0.431
Barium 0.047
Beta/photon emitters (pCi/L) 2.2
Chloramines 3.67
Chromium 1.14
Fluoride 0.71
Haloacetic Acids [HAAs] 10
Nitrate 0.19
Total Trihalomethanes 9.8

I am guessing the best and cheapest option is to buy distilled water from the store so that I can start with neutral and change it accordingly.