A real problem could crop up if you add sulfate containing minerals to this water due to the antagonistic interaction with sodium and chloride.
Your findings fit with the simple taste trials that John Palmer performed while we were finalizing the Water book.
That would be from chloride. The same thing happens with calcium chloride except that the 'salty' component of the taste is more subtle i.e. less 'salty'.He spiked a neutral beer with varying levels of sodium-containing salts to try and assess the effect on flavor. I don't recall the upper sodium level he tested, but it was well over 100 ppm. I do recall that he just commented that the beer flavor got sweeter and fuller.
OP are you using a water softener?
pH is 8.73. That's quite alkaline. pH 7 is neutral, 8 is 10x more alkaline, and 9 is 100x more alkaline than neutral. So you are about 85x more alkaline than neutral.
I compared the 2010 water report with the 2012 report and the water seems to change a lot
Highly variable water makes thing difficult for brewers. You must either be prepared to adapt to whatever is coming out of the mains on a particular brew day (and be able to test each time so yoy know what it is you are adapting to) or wipe out the variability by deionizing the water (RO is good enough). The latter is preferable in terms of simplicity and enhanced control but you learn a lot more from the former.
1. With regard to requesting a report, what exactly should I be asking my municipality to provide?
I was much to close to it to see it as a forrest. I can only see the trees.2. Anyway, does anyone know if "Water," from Palmer et. al., explains things in lamen's terms?
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