Water Filtration
TroubleShooting
Craig Collins - Casper, Wyoming asks,
I got a water quality analysis from my local water department. I am wondering, if I filter my water, does it change the analysis in any significant ways?
The answer to this question depends on what type of water filtration that you are planning to use.
Carbon filtration is the most common type of home water filtration. Carbon filters contain activated carbon (charcoal) and are primarily used to remove heavy metals, chlorine, chloramines and trihalomethanes from drinking water. Heavy metals and trihalomethanes represent health concerns in drinking water and chlorine and chloramines negatively affect water and beer flavor, so all of these compounds can be removed without having any detrimental effects to your brewing. In short, carbon filtration will not significantly change your water chemistry with respect to the analysis prepared by the local water department, so you do not need to worry about that.
If you use something like a salt-based water softener then you will significantly affect your water since water softeners replace calcium and magnesium with sodium. Although some water contains too much calcium and magnesium, salt-based softeners are not ideal for treating brewing water because of the addition of sodium. In fact, the replacement is a two-to-one multiplier since two sodium ions are added to water for every one calcium or magnesium ion removed.
