Brewing with soft water (Water Softener)

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iqoair

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Anyone try this? I'm currently drinking some Baron's brew (Brown Ale), used the water from my water softener (First batch I've ever done). Slight salty after taste, other than that, it's great. Next batches I'm trying without. Curious if others have noticed the difference. Thanks.
 
I used to brew with my tap water that was treated with a water softener, but I got a nagging unpleasantly bitter aftertaste in all of my beers. It wasn't salty like you describe, but it wasn't ideal, either.

In my case I just started splitting up my brewing water. I'll use about half tap water and half distilled water in my brew to get a more balanced water profile.

There is some debate as to what effect water softener water has on the overall taste, but without a true water test showing what's in it, it's really a guessing game. I just took the conservative route and started introducing some distilled water into the mix and am happy with the results.
 
The problem that I had was that I had no head retention...barely even a head, actually. I draw my water from the out door faucet (not on the softener) and have never had a problem since. I don't believe I had much of an aftertaste, but I was still new and learning.
 
From what I understand, the softening process puts a ton of sodium into the water
To be accurate, the exchange of sodium with hardness minerals is just that, an exchange. The more hardness minerals - primarily calcium and magnesium - the more sodium is exchanged.

The problem is two fold in terms of brewing:

1. The addition of sodium
2. The removal of calcium & magnesium

The removal of hardness will negatively impact mashing, hop bitterness and so on.

The alternate "salt" used in water softeners is Potassium Chloride which will exchange the potassium ion for the hardness ions. Same problem - different mask!

BTW, for those that say water softeners put salt in your water. Salt is a compound. For what we commonly know as salt for softeners and table use it is Sodium Chloride, one of many types of "salt" that exists as compounds. The ion exchanged in a water softener is only the Sodium ion and it has a metallic taste to most peoples senses and does not taste like "salt" at all. (unpleasantly bitter aftertaste)
 
You have soft, salty water... like me.

I buy all of my water, distilled, then build water profiles for each beer I brew.
 
I always use the bypass on my softener when brewing. My water is fairly hard but since I tend to do darker beers there isnt much of an issue.

If I wanted to do lighter styles I would go with distilled or store bought water ( with known mineral profile ) and build it up with salts as needed.
 
I use my softened water all the time without any effect on tatse. I do, however, have a whole house water filter as well.
 
I used the bypass when I lived in my townhouse. Although I didn't even like drinking the normal soft water so there was no way I was going to brew with it.
 
It depends on if you brew extract or all grain. The fact is your yeast and hop/malty perception need minerals, which softened water does not have. However, if you are brewing extract there are enough minerals in the malt so you can use softened water for that. If, on the other hand, you are brewing all grain softened water is an absolute no no. Beer will have a bad aftertaste...
 
i was wondering kinda this same thing, my water has alot of sulfur in it so for my first batch i bought all of the water from the store. does anyone know if sulfur water will have any effects of the outcome of the beer or what kind?
 
i was wondering kinda this same thing, my water has alot of sulfur in it so for my first batch i bought all of the water from the store. does anyone know if sulfur water will have any effects of the outcome of the beer or what kind?

I'm also interested in the effect of sulfur. I have well water and there is a quite a bit of sulfur in the aquifers of central Illinois. I don't think water straight from my well would be suitable for brewing due to the sulfur smell, and orange color, to be frank. The softener takes all of it out, including the hardness, which I would like to keep. I felt it was better to loose the hardness, which could be replaced if desired, than to try and work with the sulfur.

As far as problems related to sodium ions, I recently entered my first beer in a competition. A Belgian Wit. The judges commented that it was too sweet, but I'm not sure if this was a result of the soft water or poor attenuation and/or high mash temps.
 
I think that KopyKat got it right for most cases. To me, any salt in beer is not a desirable thing. Most houses are plumbed so that the kitchen cold and the outside hose bibs are hard water. The devil is always in the details. Some places have iron in the water, which gives a horrible metallic, astringent taste. If you have a municipal water supply, you should be able to get a free water report and avoid the costs of testing.
 
Softeners don't actually add any salt to your water. It's a misconception. We have a softener but I've always bypassed it when brewing.
 
Softeners don't actually add any salt to your water. It's a misconception. We have a softener but I've always bypassed it when brewing.

Well, you are half right. Ion-exchange softeners don't add 'salt' (sodium chloride) to your water. But they do add half that molecule (the sodium). The chloride goes out with the backwash regeneration water along with all the hardness ions like calcium, magnesium, iron, and manganese.

If you use potassium chloride in your softener, replace all the mentions of sodium in the text above with potassium.
 
If you have salty water coming out of the softener, then it's not working properly. Double check your settings to make sure the correct amount of brine is being drawn into the resin during the regeneration cycle. If too much brine is drawn in, there's a chance it will not completely rinse away at the end of the cycle. Check your local water report for a hardness number to use in the softener settings. If you're on a private well, you may have to take a sample to a lab. Also be sure to double check units. Many softeners will use grains per gallon in the manual, while most water reports will use mg/L. Google the conversion.
 
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