Water quality

[Mismost]

Noob here with a question. How does water quality affect beer brewing? I would think a bunch.

I have a well drilled into limestone and run through a water softener for use in the house. It is dang good tasting water to me. It does have a bit of salt from the softner and a touch of iron from the well pipe. No chorine.

Reckon this would make good beer?

 

[Roadie]

A bunch. Brewing with water from a water softener is a no-no.

 

[brandonhagen1]

Plus one 🔼

 

[Mismost]

A bunch. Brewing with water from a water softener is a no-no.

Thanks!

I can pull direct from well and bypass softner....lotta limestone/calcium and minerals in the water although it still tastes good to me. This would be better?

Also, since this is well water, it does have "bugs". So, I assume, any water that goes into the wort should be boiled first?

 

[sanguine]

Most beer recipes involve boiling the water for an extended period of time anyway, but if you're using one of those no-boil beginner extract kits, then yes, boiling the water beforehand and then letting it cool would probably be a good idea.

Hard water can still make good beer, but you'll probably want to trend towards the darker end of the color scale.

 

[noobie]

My city water tastes like crap so I filter it first. When the wort gets boiled, the water does, too. If you have to worry about your water, then you have bigger problems than how it's going to make your beer taste. Sounds like you'll be fine.

 

[McKnuckle]

I have a similar situation - well water and a softener. I made my first 10 batches with the well water and had variable success. Some were okay, others were meh. I tried mixing softened and unsoftened water (before I learned about the softener/sodium issue). Finally my wife made a comment about the taste of some beer I had made - she said it was "soapy." I Googled that, and there some comments about it being associated with bicarbonate in the water. I decided to have the well water tested by Ward Labs.

It was terrible for brewing. Very hard, very high bicarbonate, too much sodium, almost no sulfate, and a higher than acceptable level of nitrate. My response? I went to the fridge, uncapped and dumped all the homebrew I had. I was done with the well water! I had avoided learning the basics of brewing water and now I had to bite the bullet.

So I did... and now I buy distilled water from the grocery store at about $0.85 a gallon, add my CaCl, gypsum, and Epsom salts in various proportion and the occasional bit of lactic acid. My beers ever since have been GREAT, except for one or two that had issues unrelated to water. It was the best thing I ever did for my brewing.

Bottom line, you can't always tell from the taste of your water. Bad taste would certainly imply a problem, but even good taste can mask issues that affect the chemistry of brewing.

 

[mabrungard]

Yes, "a bunch" was a good answer. At up to 97 percent of the content of beer, water quality is absolutely critical to brewing success. But water doesn't make beer great, the brewer does. The one thing that water can do, is ruin your beer. You do have to understand a couple of basics about water for brewing and attend to those needs. It isn't that difficult.

You can start to understand how and why water affects your brewing success by reading the Water Knowledge page of the Bru'n Water website.

Just remember, water doesn't make beer great, but it sure can ruin it. You want your brewing water to remain tastefully in the background so that your malt and hops can do their thing.

 

[JonM]

A lot of people who have crummy water take empty fermenting jugs to the grocery store and fill 'em up using their RO distilling machine in the soda/water aisle. Around here, it's called Water Island. Might be called something else by you.

It's about 25-30 cents a gallon. Then we build a proper water profile by adding things like calcium chloride, gypsum, etc.

Here's a good place to start to understand the basics.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/