Jumping back in - How much should I worry about water?

[Arcanicity]

Hey all. I'm jumping back into homebrewing after a 10 year break. Planning on doing a few extract kits to get my feet wet again before moving to all grain with my shiny new AIO. I'm wondering how much I really need to worry about water chemistry. My well has ridiculously hard water with high sulfur content. So I'm going to use RO water. Am I good to skip messing with water profiles and just stick to the RO to start?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Extract. RO. To start.

Yes. You may be interested later on to explore mineral additions for flavor's sake, but low- or no-mineral water is ideal for extract. The extract contains the condensed mineral content of the mash.

 

[Sammy86]

Hey all. I'm jumping back into homebrewing after a 10 year break. Planning on doing a few extract kits to get my feet wet again before moving to all grain with my shiny new AIO. I'm wondering how much I really need to worry about water chemistry. My well has ridiculously hard water with high sulfur content. So I'm going to use RO water. Am I good to skip messing with water profiles and just stick to the RO to start?

Welcome back to the obsession! Since beer is so heavily influenced by water and you are using RO water why not add the salts/minerals in order to make the beer taste better?

I found my beers became significantly better once I began taking my water and water chemistry more seriously.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Welcome back to the obsession! Since beer is so heavily influenced by water and you are using RO water why not add the salts/minerals in order to make the beer taste better?

I found my beers became significantly better once I began taking my water and water chemistry more seriously.

Are you brewing with extract or all-grain?

 

[Sammy86]

Are you brewing with extract or all-grain?

I brew all-grain…which I thought was what the OP was discussing when making the move to his new AIO.

You are correct RO water straight up with extract is perfect.

My apologies if I misunderstood the OP

 

[DBhomebrew]

With the switch to the AIO, yes, definitely. Learn water.

 

[Arcanicity]

I'll be extract for a while

Are you brewing with extract or all-grain?

I'll be brewing extract for a while. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for the input all!

 

[EDF713]

When you start with all grain, you'll find lots of tools that make water chemistry easier than what was out there 10 years ago. Beersmith and Brewfather have water chemistry calculators that are easy to use and built into the recipe builders.