brewing extract batch with softened H20?

Brewing extract with soft water is perfectly fine. Some people actually reccomemd brewing extract batches with distilled water because all the essential brewing minerals are already in the extract from when the manufacturer mashed and produced the extract.

As far as chilling over night I wouldn't. Chilling as fast as possible will really help you lock in some extra hop flavor and aroma where as letting it naturally cool is gonna drive off most the hop flavor/aroma and leave you with a more bitter beer than you had expected.

 

You can use distiller or Reverse Osmosis water for extract brewing. Softened water can be high in Sodium, and the ion exchange removes the Calcium and Magnesium which are very beneficial for all grain brewing but does not concern you. If you use your tap water make sure it does not have chlorine or chloramine, if it does one Campden tablet will treat 20 gallons of water.

 

Soft water can be good for extract brewing. Depends on how the water was softened. If it ends up full of sodium through ion exchange, I wouldn't brew with it. Distilled water is fine (and arguably best) for extract brewing.

I wouldn't do this. If I didn't have a chiller, I'd at least use an ice water bath. Slow, but it will get you there eventually.

 

Does that tap water contain chlorine/chloramines?

 

They could be using GAC filters on the tap water, or just have it at strike temp during the night in the HLT will drive off chlorine, but not chloramine. Chlorine free water is a must if you wish to brew defect free beer.

 

Not sure about artificially softened water, though I suspect it's been discussed before.

It's common practice to bypass the water softener for the outside hose bibs. You didn't say where your father in law lives, but, assuming he has a suitable municipal water supply that's good for drinking (the Great Lakes, for example), you could simply get the water from the garden hose, treating for Chlorine, as necessary (assuming that water is, indeed, un-softened). A sediment/charcoal filter wouldn't hurt. If the untreated water isn't so great, as long as you're using extract, you could simply buy distilled water at the supermarket.

 

It is a bad no no to brew with water for an installed water softener. It might be good to see what the H2O is before the softener. A safer bet, just head to a grocery store and pick up H2O that you will need.

For cooling I just use a sink for ~3.5 G. So it sounds like you are dragging along propane for the full batch size?

 

For extract brewing the zeroth-order thing to do is ask yourself, does the water taste good? If it has no off flavors, then (IMHO) the next thing to deal with is removing chlorine/chloramines, which most easily done with a Campden tablet (1 tablet/20 gallons). For this first batch, I personally wouldn't worry about water beyond these two things. If the taste is off, then go with bottled spring or distilled water. For an extract hoppy pale ale, the water isn't likely to have that much of an impact (again, IMHO).

 

My water softener has a bypass valve installed on the plumbing just before it goes into the softener, and so did my old one. It was installed by the service company at the same time as the softener, and I suspect all softeners have this, presumably for when a repair technician needs to work on the unit. I turn the valve and let my faucet run a minute to purge the softened water from the line (longer if you are drawing water from a distant faucet) and then get all of the natural water I need to brewing before turning the bypass valve to its normal position.

Also, you're in NY so is setting the brew kettle or fermenter outside an option to take advantage of the cold air?

 

There is a general rule of thumb that ~5G of wort to boil one needs to go to another heat source usually outside to vent the gases produced by propane.

On of the reasons for not using soften water is the water may be high in sodium as I recall.