the more I’ve messed around with water the more I’m finding that for my palette I prefer soft water. My lagers, stouts, porters, really anything that isnt a hoppy style of beer or a saison get the same soft water profile with either acid or baking soda added to get my PH right
Same here. I have some fairly soft well water to start with, but on almost all my beers I add Gypsum to get sulfate up to 80ish PPM, I add Kosher salt to get chloride in the 70-80 PPM range, and Lactic Acid to get to my target pH. This leaves me with Calcium in the 50ish range and Sodium around 40ppm. I’ve found that the less I add to my water the more I enjoy my beer. Even on hoppy beers, I only target 125-150ppm of Sulfate.
I feel the same. I have softened well water with a resulting 65 sodium and a 74 chloride. I generally end up adding some gypsum, a bit of baking soda for dark beers and sometimes acid.
Some think the 65 ppm of sodium is high but I think its neutral for some and enhances malt flavor in most beers.