Will a brita soften hard water?

[IanPC]

I know I have hard water...what is the answer to softening it up..and what will it do to my brew?

 

[Grinder12000]

No it won't and you need to know what combination of minerals are making it hard

 

[passedpawn]

Water softener.

 

[IanPC]

Calcium carbonate. I can see it on the shower head. Iron seems fine. No distinct taste or stains in any sinks. I'm still extract brewing and using poland springs water jugs for brewing. I'm going to go AG eventually so I'd rather figure out my tap water situation before doing it. No clue where to start for a water test. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

 

[IanPC]

Mind you I have the math and science skills of an amoeba. I was a history and English person.

 

[onthekeg]

If you have just iron and low calcium, you can use an iron filter. It will IX without adding any significant ions. If you have calcium, as most do, then you swap Na for Ca+.

 

[IanPC]

How do you do that?

 

[IanPC]

I'm feeling I should probably just start with a water test maybe.

 

[944play]

I would try to avoid adding any unnecessary sodium to my beer. Soften by dilution with RO (you can use DI or distilled, but it costs a lot more) water.

 

[IanPC]

Forgive my ignorance, but what's RO stand for?

 

[Retrofit]

Reverse Osmosis.

 

[ajdelange]

To answer the original question: yes, a Brita pitcher will soften your water but is an impractical means of doing so for the large volumes required in brewing as compared to other methods.

RO stands for Reverse Osmosis - source water on one side of a membrane is raised to pressure greater than the osmotic pressure which causes water to pass from the mineral containing source side of the membrane to the other where it is collected at much reduced mineral content.

Softening refers to removing calcium and magnesium ions. That is not the goal of a brewer. His goal is to remove bicarbonate. Thus the typical home water softener, which removes calcium and magnesium and replaces them with sodium, is not a good way to treat brewing water.

At your level of understanding I would recommend reading and following the Primer. This will be done blindly at first. I also strognly suggest some reading to try to get at least the fundamentals under your belt.

And a water test is definitely a requirement. You must know where you are in order to determine how you are going to get to where you want to be.

 

[Grinder12000]

Ward Labs seems to be the place most people send their water for testing. The Primer makes more sense the more time you read it. Online read "How To Brew"s great water section.

Brita softens water? So my soft water is getting softer when run through a Brita filter?

 

[ajdelange]

Yes, Brita pitchers contain anion and cation exchange resins. Or at least they used to.