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I am trying to decide if I should be brewing with water that has be passed through my softener. In my current setup, I am using water that is fed directly from my well, through a charcoal sediment filter, into my brew kettle. (bypassing the softener)

I recently had somebody come out and test my water and he told me that I have high levels of Manganese (.59 mg/L). The iron levels are minimal. A water softener is supposed to be one of the best methods to remove Manganese from water. We did another test post softener and there are no traces of it.

I do not know the sodium levels of my water pre or post softener. I currently have it set just below the default hardness setting of 25 on a Kenmore Ultra Soft 200.

What effect does Manganese have on beer and are they worse than the effects of high sodium?

If I brew with softened water, am I going to have to compensate for the reduced hardness?

Thanks,
Dustin

I have high manganese, and if I don't keep my softener full it messes with my laundry at least. I just get brewing water at the store, or at my dad's house (he's on city water).

Andy

I am struggling with additions. With city water what do you do for IPA, PA, Bitter, Stout, Brown etc?

S

For IPA, pale ale, bitter, and anything else pale and hoppy I usually aim for 150-200 ppm sulfate and 50-100 ppm calcium, which is usually about 0.25 tsp of gypsum per gallon. For darker beers I'll try to get my carbonates around 150-200 ppm, so around 0.4 tsp of chalk per gallon. For the sparge water though, I won't add the chalk, to keep the pH from getting too high, so I'll add the rest to the boil. If it's a darker beer that's going to be hoppy I might add a bit of gypsum as well, and if it's going to be something fuller and rounder (London type porters and brown ales) I'll often add baking soda for sodium at around 35 ppm and calcium chloride for chloride at around 60 ppm (.06 and .12 tsp). Non iodized salt would be easier for sodium and chloride, but I never seem to have any around.

amartin wrote:I have high manganese, and if I don't keep my softener full it messes with my laundry at least. I just get brewing water at the store, or at my dad's house (he's on city water).

Yes, I definitely need my softener going for washing. I was just hoping I could find a happy medium without having to haul water.

After doing a little more research in to how much sodium is added during softening, I've decided to start hauling water. Bit of pain, but hopefully I'll taste the difference in my beer.