Hey there,
I have read the posts on brewing with a water softener, but I was not able to fins any posts about brweing with an iron curtain.
We just built a brand new house which has a well, and unfortunately the water quality is horrible… Very hard, irony and smells of sulfur. So we had a softener installed and do to the high iron content needed an iron curtain as well. My question is what will that combo do to the quality of my home beer?
Thanks in advance!
Nick
You should send a sample of your water to Ward Labs for analysis. The report will help you decide whether it’s going to make sense to treat and brew with your water or use distilled or RO water as your base. Any other advice is just conjecture since we know nothing about the content of your water other than the salt added by your softener.
Typically it is not advised to use straight softened water for brewing. Not only does it lack calcium, it’s full of salt. I’m assuming if you need a iron remover your water is really hard, which increases the salt levels.
@dannyboy58 said the best method would be to have the water tested for appropriate levels but don’t be surprised if the answer is not to use it. UNLESS OF COURSE, you get an RO system after the treatment process. These units remove 99% of ALL minerals, leaving pure water. Then you can build water profiles as necessary.
I would advise to skip the water analysis, and put that money to a RO system. Not to rub Dannyboy wrong, just the intro sez all that needs to be read. Sneezles61
Yea sneezles is probably right. The softened water isn’t likely to be usable to brew. Do you have your original water analysis? If you have a spigot off the water main before the softener you could take water from there for brewing. Otherwise an RO system or buying water every time you brew is your answer.
