Hard or softened water

[buzzbee]

I am starting my third batch of extract brew. I have hard water from our well that I boiled the first two batches.We have a water softener,is it better to stick with the boiled hard water or should I use the softened water. I am leaning toward the hard water,just wanted to see what you all think.
Thanks,ken

 

[Doc Robinson]

Never use water from a water softener. The sodium content will make your beer too salty. If your water is too hard, dilute it with distiller water.

 

[PatMac]

If the previous batches turned out tasting okay I don't see any reason to switch.

 

[malkore]

It doesn't matter much with malt extract because the pH of the brewing process was taken care of back when they manufactured the malt extract.

If your tap water has a lot of chloramine in it, you might want to treat that with campden tablets, or filter it (I think carbon filters will remove a fair amount of chloramine).

 

[mitch171]

Never use water from a water softener. The sodium content will make your beer too salty. If your water is too hard, dilute it with distiller water.

Really? My last batch and best batch came from softened water that went through a salt softener. I don't tast any salt? It is a Hennipen clone.

I am not saying you are wrong, just posting my experience.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Here's a good article that discusses water softeners. It is primarily focused on the use of potassium salts, but it includes some info on sodium as well.

http://www.byo.com/stories/recipes/...-truth-about-softeners-a-how-long-is-too-long

 

[rweird]

Never use water from a water softener. The sodium content will make your beer too salty. If your water is too hard, dilute it with distiller water.

a lot of misinformation in that post. there is no salt in softened water unless the softener is not working properly. sodium /= salt. salt=sodium chloride. softeners work through a process call ion exchange, look it up. and there is less sodium in a 8oz glass of softened water than there is in the same amount of milk or a slice of bread.

fwiw ive heard using hard water helps the protein in the wort coagulate. also the minerals that are there will give your brew some subtle differences.

that being said i still bypassed my softener when i did my first brew last week.

 

[android]

according to palmer:

"Water softening systems can also be used to remove bad-tasting minerals like iron, copper, and manganese as well as the scale-causing minerals, calcium and magnesium. Salt-based water softeners use ion exchange to replace these heavier metals with sodium. Softened water works fine for extract brewing but should be used with caution for all-grain brewing. Depending on the type of beer, the mashing process requires a particular balance of minerals in the water that the softening process will remove."

 

[wyzazz]

My soft water (from a well) works just fine for my Extract, Partial Mash & BIAB brews. My water is so hard and iron laden before my filter and softener it's ridiculous. I'd have to imagine my beer would taste like sulfur and metal if I didn't send it through the softener first.