Brewing With Soft Water

[The Pol]

or... not brewing with it. My water at my new home was HORRIBLE, so now we have a water softener. BUT, per Papazian the sodium that it introduces to the water will probably make the water unuseable for brewing. OOKAY, so what are my options? RO water? My understanding is that I would have to BUILD my water if I use RO water. What do I do!!!!

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Didn't you set up your softener so that at least one faucet (usually the kitchen cold tap, and maybe the outside spigots) have regular water out of them???


Otherwise most softeners have bypasses on them so you can, say, water the lawn without using up all of the soft water on your lawn.

Hope this helps.

 

[The Pol]

It has a bypass... BUT then I am brewing with REALLY hard water... so then what?

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Sorry, Pol, then I dunno. I've never messed with adjusting PH in my brewing water, so then I'm not much help...............

 

[Got Trub?]

I think your choices are to either dilute with RO/Distilled water or per-boil your water as that will precipitate out some of the minerals and soften your water. The former will give you more control over the end product so if it was me that is the route I would take.

GT

 

[Jack]

Agreed. I live where there's outrageously hard water, so I dilute my tap water with RO water by about 50-50 to bring it down to reasonable levels. I also pre-boil my tap water because it's too chlorinated.

If I wanted to, I could use my water report to calculate how much dilution I need for a particular style but I'm not sure that I care enough at this point.

 

[The Drizzle]

That's what you get for moving to Indy!:cross:

 

[Professor Frink]

I have naturally very soft water here, so I just add pH 5.2 to the mash water and it works great. I don't know about the salts the softener adds to the water though.

 

[The Pol]

Sup DRIZZLE, how goes life in LGA? Well, I will get a water report from my utility and see how it will work with dilution with RO water. I also have some chlorine issues, but I have a filter system that my water still passes through even when I bypass the softener. I can use that filter for the chlorine OR boil say 4 gallons of hard water, dilute with 4 gallons of RO water and brew... I will figure it out. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[SenorWanderer]

with all the $$ you'll be spending on RO water with that solution i'd just go for installing your own RO setup on the bypass. more $$ upfront, but savings in the long run. i'd look at building your own water as an advantage. you get to nail pH and style for every beer you brew! hooray!

 

[The Pol]

5.2 will nail the PH every time, that isnt hard... it is all the other stuff that is

An RO system for $300... when I can buy 4 gallons of RO water for a brew for $1.60. To make the RO system worth my while Id have to brew AT LEAST 187 brews to break even. That doesnt sound like saving me money in the long run. That is not even including the replacement filters or minerals to build my water each time.

 

[The Pol]

WHERE can I fid water profiles for brewing different beers? I have a profile calculator, but I need to know what profiles to input!

 

[david_42]

If your water is so hard you need the softener, I think you are stuck going to RO. My tap water has very few minerals in it, so I use pH5.2 for the mash & sparge. As an alternative, I picked up some Burton's salts to try with my next Pale.

 

[The Pol]

Well, I now have a water profile calculator so that I can build my water from RO, which is fine... BUT I do need to know what to built it to... any one know where to get water profiles?

 

[the_wickster]

I am in a similar situation with REALLY hard well water that has high total alkalinity. My learning experience is here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=33699

I am not a chemist and I want to use my water. So I literally use half softened water and half hard water (softener bypassed) for all of my beers. Then I add the 5.2 Stabilizer (I'll skip it if doing a stout)

Currently I only PM with 6-7 lbs of grain, but I'm getting descent effeciency (70-75%) and they tate pretty darn good and I don't have to mess with other salts and chemicals. This summer I hope to do the same thing with AG

 

[cheapBeersucks]

If you have soft water and you drinkit with out tasting salty....would your beer taste salty?

 

[The Pol]

Soft water is lacking some of the hardness and compounds that give you an efficient mash... the sodium in the water may not be noticeable, but the levels of sodium in the water may drastically change your mash. I use 1/2 distilled and 1/2 spring water in most of my brews now! They are VERY tasty!