On 07/05/2020 14:31, Andy Burns wrote:
NY wrote:
I'm about to try brewing beer from a kit. Our tapwater is fairly hard,
but the house has a water softener (*) for one of the kitchen taps.

Is it better to use hard water, as it is supplied, or to use water
from the softener?

The softened water will have more sodium in it. If your water is very
very hard then a mix of the two might have less calcium scum.

Given that "Burtonizing" brewing water raises the hardness levels, I'd
say the former

The right amount of hardness is probably the key to good beer. We never
did anything special on moderately hard water when I was a student.

It is certainly the key to good coffee. I went to a chemistry lecture on
coffee with a barrista tasting session afterwards with the same very
high end coffee made up with three different grades of water.

1. Ultrapure deionised (too soft)
2. Newcastle tap water (almost perfect)
3. Evian Water (too hard)

#1 was very thin and lacklustre.
#3 was oily with free bases and caught the back of your throat

#2 was the just right Goldilocks version.


--
Regards,
Martin Brown