How is my tap water for brewing?

First of all I only brew extract right now so I know my water makeup isn't nearly as important as if I were doing AG (heck, I hear I can even use distilled water), but I was curious about how my water quality so I figure I'd get all the info I could.

I haven't had a chance to get an official water analysis for my tap water yet so I emailed the public utilities guys to get some basic info on the water chemistry here. Here's some of the info he sent me:

-Hardness levels in Cheyenne are typically less than 4 grains per gallon (~68ppm). The most recent sample collected (in March I believe), was 24 ppm, but it fluctuates.

-The chlorine residual varies across the City and can range from 1.1 mg/L (parts per million) to 0.5 mg/L, depending on the location.

-As for pH, we try to deliver between 7.4 & 7.8 from our storage tank to the community. And of course it may vary a little from that, at any one location.

-There are no chloramines used within the Cheyenne system.

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How do these compare up to other tap water levels?

Are they within the acceptable levels or should I be filtering/boiling/buying spring water or any combination of those?

Thanks for the help ahead of time.

p.s. First post here, you guys are great.

When it comes to chlorine I would suggest preparing your brewing water the night before you brew, and leaving it uncovered to allow the chlorine to off-gas.

My water company uses chloramines to sanitize our water, and it has the signature greenish hue to it when viewed in sunlight. I use Campden tablets and leave the lids off of the water bottles over night, cheap insurance to ensure my beer doesn't taste like band-aids.

As you stated brweing water isn't as important when using extract, since you are getting many of the minerals needed in the extract itself, but chlorine/chloramines are definitely something you want to address regardless of brewing w/extract or AG. Having said that, proper mineral levels are important not only for flavor but for yeast health and fermentation also.

Contacting your public utilities was a good start, but he didn't give you enough information to know exactly what you need to do. Lots of utilities add chloramines or chlorine (different from chloride) to water as a secondary disinfectant, which you would have to filter out or boil off before you use it, but you don't seem to have to worry about that. You ought to email him back and ask about calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulfate, and sodium concentrations (in mg/L or ppm), which you'll need for subsequent water calculations.

If you're interested in finding out more about water chemistry, I'd recommend John Palmer's explanation about water chemistry. He and Jamil Zainasheff also have a 4-part water series in their Brew Strong show at the Brewing Network that's pretty good.