Water depends on whether you’re brewing with extract or all-grain. Extract brewers should normally use 100% distilled water. All-grain brewers generally should NOT use 100% distilled water unless calculating salt additions and putting the right stuff back in.
For clarity to the OP, when we speak of using “RO water” in all grain batches, we really are implying RO water that has been treated with brewing salts or other things to adjust the water for the appropriate mash and sparge characteristics based on the style of beer that we are pursuing. That is what Martin’s spreadsheet assists us with doing - it is really a great tool. My typical RO water is 12-14 ppm total dissolved solids and I build from there. Good luck to you!
I disagree that extract brewers should ONLY use distilled or RO water, especially when it comes to hoppy beers.
The extract makers only need just enough mineral content to be able to mash. They have no idea how you are going to use their extracts, so they don’t add very much to the water.
It’s pretty easy to spot the newbie IPA/APA extract beers up here in WA because our water has such low mineral content (single digit numbers - Plzn like). The hops in those beers are muted. This accentuates ester levels and the high hopping levels impart excessive grassiness. No matter how many hops they throw in, the only thing that increases is the grassiness, not the bitterness nor the hop flavor.
Once they figure out/are told that a little bit of gypsum goes a long way, even in the extract batches, its as if they brewed a completely different recipe.
I agree that IPAs need some gypsum. I disagree that you can easily spot a newbie brew.
Dave-
Gotta disagree with you on this one.
In my experience, it is very easy to spot those newbie beers that I described. I’ve seen it many, many times. Between all the homebrew club meetings over the years, the “what’s wrong with my beer” events (like we do at the WAHA 5060 fest every year), and judging events where we actually sit down and talk with the brewers right after we judge the beer (such as Homebrewfaire a few years ago), it is a commonly recurring theme up here where our water is single digit minerals and nearly every newbie is a hophead.
I have to agree with Dave here. With the extract manufacturers’ water profile obviously included in the extract, I feel it’s best to START with RO or distilled for all extract beers, to avoid over mineralizing. But being a hophead, I always added a tsp or two of gypsum to my hoppy beers.