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I have city water at my house which our Regional Water Authority states has a Hardness of 112.10 mg/l. I would like to get this down by 62 points, but not sure what the best way to do this without bittering the water and adding salts to give the beer an off flavor.

I am newish all grain brewer and this is for a double IPA recipe.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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  • I'm not sure what you mean by "bittering the water". And if done correctly, adding salts won't give the beer an off flavor.
    – Denny Conn
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 14:54

3 Answers 3

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Hardness is only one component of water. You need to look at the full analysis to see what's causing it in order to know what to do about it. Then, use a water spreadsheet (I recommend Bru'nwater https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/) to calculate how to correct for it. Your fears about water additions are unfounded. If done correctly, no off flavors will be produced.

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  • Thanks. I do have a full analysis. I'll check out Bru'nwater.
    – Bootsy7086
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 15:25
  • Start by taking a close look at the water knowledge page on the website.
    – Denny Conn
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 15:29
  • Will do. So much info, but I am hoping for better results
    – Bootsy7086
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 15:35
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    I consider water chemistry to be the last 5% of making great beer. I won a lot of awards for my beers before I ever tackled it. There are other things that are much more important. But if you have all other parts of your process under control already, water chemistry can get you the rest of the way.
    – Denny Conn
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 16:27
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    Well, if they disagree with me, they're just wrong! ;)
    – Denny Conn
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 18:41
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To lower the concentration of anything in water you need to simply add RO or distilled water. TO get from 112 to 62 you would be diluting the water basically in half with RO water.

But doing this is pointless unless you understand and know what the water chemistry is that you are really targeting. Diluting hard water to make it softer won't increase the hop bitterness any.

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In addition to brewchez & Denny's answers you can pre-boil your water and let sit overnight. This drops out the calcium carbonate and hence hardness. The water can then be decanted off the thin layer of sediment.

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