Reverse osmosis system, cartridge to reduce acidity

[artichoke]

Hi,

I'm building a house which is on a well water system. The water straight out of the well is already fairly soft but I am adding a reverse osmosis system for brewing, with the intent that I would be in full control of adding back salts to achieve the desired water profile for the beer being brewed.

The contractor who is installing the water treatment equipment showed me the reverse osmosis equipment plan, which includes a cartridge of some sort to "make the reverse osmosis water less acidic". I assume this cartridge adds back alkalinity and I am worried that this would defeat the purpose of the RO system or brewing water. Are any experts reading this familiar with this approach for RO systems, would this cartridge add significant hardness to the brewing water? Should I tell the water treatment installer to take it out of the plan? I think that this is normally done for people who want RO drinking water because RO is slightly acidic and the concern is damage to the pipes, but for brewing I would assume this is undesirable.

Thanks

- Artichoke.

 

[day_trippr]

for brewing I would assume this is undesirable.

That would be my take. Seems pointless if you'll only be using the RO product for brewing, and as whatever they're adding back may be rather indeterminate from an end-user's abilities, pretty detrimental towards dialing up a specific liquor content.

I would think the system would be operable with that cartridge removed. You may not have to ask for any changes...

Cheers!

 

[mabrungard]

Absolutely NOT!! That is just a remineralization cartridge filled with chalk. I have one in my household system and eventually abandoned it. Just as in brewing, chalk doesn't dissolve very quickly in a RO distribution system and you won't get much benefit for drinking water and you don't want it for brewing since you won't know what the water quality is.