Just got my water report back from ward labs. Our water is from a spring that comes into the house and goes through a softener system/filter. Seems like my water should be good to build from for numerous styles although my water knowledge is pretty limited. Thoughts on my water? *i currently build from distilled using bru n water spreadsheet. Cheers pat.
That is some extremely soft water. My understanding is that using water that has gone through a home water softener is not ideal.
That report indicates very soft water. The brewing water chemistry is your oyster! You should get some CaSO4 aka Gypsum, CaCl2 aka Calcium Chloride, and NaHCO aka baking soda. From there you can create just about any water profile.
Yea it seems that this water shouldn't be much different than building from distilled as I've been doing with brewing salts.
A few quick questions: Have you profiled the spring water? Do you actually need a water softener? Upon further review, your sodium levels are quite low, considering...and that would indicate you don't have particularly hard water.
No the spring has been hooked up to the softener system for a long time. I live in a ~100 year old farm house and don't feel like messing around with the current setup.
That is true for most that have had water, as the Ca and Mg are replaced with Na, which then can be in high amounts. High Na is not ideal, and you would have to add back the Ca. An Na value of 17 ppm is not bad at all. To me it says that the water has low Ca and Mg to begin with. That water is fine for brewing. Almost a clean slate. Adjust with gypsum, CaCl2, acid, and Baking soda or pickling lime. For the OP is the softener to remove iron? That is what I think it is in there for.
Originally the softener was installed because there is a well on the property and it was of removing iron from that. A couple years back the well got methane in it either from years of farming the land or possible a nearby natural gas well. After the well water went bad the spring house was hooked up to the same softener system that the well used even though it may not have needed it. After the water goes thru the softener/filter system it goes thru a UV blue light to kill bacteria and whatnot so I'm assuming that's why the previous owners hooked the spring to the softener system. I think the softener system is working very similar to a RO system.
´Yea it seems that this water shouldn't be much different than building from distilled as I've been doing with brewing salts.´ You said it all.
