Which Water To Use? (Lab Results Inside)

I've never really been happy with our house water (community well) and we always drink from the household RO system. Whenever I brew, I use RO and build up a water profile from there. Just accumulating all the water requires about a day of planning and then obviously adding the minerals is a little work.

Sent my water out to Ward Labs, below are the results.

Is the non-RO just too far off to use?

Sample #1: RO
pH:.................6.9
TDS:................36
Cations / Anions:...0.6 / 0.5

Na:.................13
K:..................< 1
Ca:.................< 1
Mg:.................< 1
Total Hardness:.....< 1
NO3-N:..............0.1
SO4-S:..............< 1
Cl:.................7
CO3:................< 1
HCO3:...............16
Total Alkalinity:...13
F:..................0.21
Fe:.................< 0.01

Sample #2: Non-RO
pH:.................8.3
TDS:................575
Cations / Anions:...9.8 / 9.9

Na:.................224
K:..................< 1
Ca:.................< 1
Mg:.................< 1
Total Hardness:.....3
NO3-N:..............0.9
SO4-S:..............16
Cl:.................116
CO3:................15
HCO3:...............308
Total Alkalinity:...278
F:..................1.13
Fe:.................< 0.01

Water location: Holly, MI 48442

Is sample #2 post water softener? It's gotta be with no Calcium and Magnesium and all that sodium. Not really usable for much there.

Bobby_M said:

Is sample #2 post water softener? It's gotta be with no Calcium and Magnesium and all that sodium. Not really usable for much there.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the whole house is on water softener so both are post water softener. I think the only bypass is for the irrigation system.

So stick with the RO and build up from a blank slate?

jpalarchio said:

So stick with the RO and build up from a blank slate?

Click to expand...

Yeah, that softened water is pretty much useless. Even ignoring the sodium, it has very high bicarbonate with virtually no calcium/magnesium. I wouldn't even know how to begin to deal with that.

Right, build from the RO. At least you know it's consistent.

you could test the water you get BEFORE the softener.
It could be good for darker, maltier beers...