Water softener.

[rpt]

Hard water is fine to drink. I thought the reason for softening was to help make washing easier.

[Wonkydonkey]

Hard water is fine to drink. I thought the reason for softening was to help make washing easier.

Yes indeed, ihard water has health benefits, but like you say soft water is good for washing (less soap) And the enzymes on The grain like to be washed/soaked or whatever they need to do a proper job in converting starch, and this means playing with the water so they do a good job, that's if you don't have the right water to be able to get the right range of pH in the mash for them to to a smashing job, and this has a knock on effect all the way through the brew.

Let's face it we never have the right water to do just any brew, there is always one type of brew that suits your tap water. And mine is hard, good for any brew with lots of dark grains, ( more acidic grains to counter balance the chalk etc, in the water).

Others have said don't bother playing with your water, untill you make consistently reasonable beer, well I think I'm at this stage. And yes I think it's the icing in the cake, but it's still early for me. I've only done 2 brews with some (1/3) RO water.
The next is going to be a full on 70-80% RO and with the aid of a few water calculators and the addition of CaSO4 and what ever else is needed.
But having said this, if you did not do that well in biology or chemistry in school, and don't understand pH. Then it's going to be a minefield for you..

[chris.laws.54943]

So I bought a salifert hardness testing kit and I've been testing everything in sight [GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]
My hard tap water is super hard alkalinity of 239, my softened water is still high (133 and I can't be sure how much sodium is in it now) Tesco ashbeck comes in at a tiny 30 alkalinity. I've used this to brew today and the mash pH was a tad low. Still hit a neat 1.050 og for a pale ale with 20L in FV so not too much harm done. I also added button crystals to up the calcium (which was low in the ashbeck) and so far the wort tastes amongst the best ever. I used quite a bit of the burton crystals too but not quite the full 1g/L liquor I tentatively worked out. I'll let you know how the brew turns out in about a month.
Next to try is waitrose essential water which has a slightly higher alkalinity (45) but will need nearly as calcium additions as the ashbeck.