How many HomeBrewers have R.O. Units ?

I started building the water up from scratch, then adding their salts,
It's seems to me that their should be more chatter on this matter.
I think the water is  just as important as yeast, and grain bill.
It is the very first thing that I do now for I select the recipe.
It took my beers to the next level ,,or it seems that it really has improve
Since I started doing  so

It was about 6 or 7 brews ago I was seeing, tasting and really shining though
Just want all my fellow home brewers to think about this !!!!!!!!
Cheers

I started hauling water from my buddy R.O. System but now I am going to invest in a system
My buddy bought this ED unit from
airwaterice.com
Do a search air water ice and look at the ED unit
Going to get it with a 20 gallon holding tank , I did ask them if you could use a bladder tank from Menards and they said it not a problem since I do 20 gallon back to back brew on brew day
Total investment less than 350.oo maybe even less than that going to check on a bladder tank at Menards I thing their about 80.00 so maybe about 250.00
I am on a well and had two water reports done at wards labs when I started all graining about 2 years ago.
Cheers

I think most home brewers have a decent water supply.  If your well is like the one my parents had when I was growing up, you would need to start with RO or distilled water and "build up" as you say to emulate the water profile of the targeted style.

But as I said, I think most of us have decent water to start with.  Also remember the history of beer, most people 100 years or more ago didn't have decent water, yet they were able to brew and drink beer.  It all depends on how involved you want to get.

I installed a Culligan cartridge filter using the D30A filter.  I just tee off my cold line for the washing machine.  My water is fine for brewing and I only treat it with a little gypsum for my hoppy beers.

I have systematically focused on several areas of my brewing since I started a few years ago.  First was the more important aspects of homebrew.  Cleanliness and Sanitation and Fermentation control.  After that was a good water filter. Then optimizing my mash technique to be better aligned with my equipment efficiencies.  Next was my wort chilling.  Now, I am finally looking at adjusting my water to make subtle changes in the different styles of beer I am making.

For most brewers filtered tap water is fine.  Some need to stabilize the PH and nice products like 5.2 from 5 Star make it easy.  Unless brewers have nailed the fermentation with temperature control and healthy yeast pitches of adequate healthy cell counts, they should not be looking at water profiles and building up from RO / Distilled.

My PH  from Wards Labs came back at 7.8 which is only .8 from neutral,
I add a little Lactic Acid to my HLT, along with my salts, for the total brew water
I tried using 5.2 and it never really helped my mash PH to get it down to 5.2 to 5.4
at room temp,
I really had to add Latic ( I thought more than most ) to bring down my mash PH
Have notice that since I have been using the water profile in BS2.
I have not had to add any latic acid at all in my mash .
which I am not sure of yet and something I think has to do with the program from salts and RO or DI
Did you check on that ED unit ?
I have a Plate chiller.

I use BEER CAPTURED for the water style I want ( PAGE 177 ) from the BEER STYLE chart instead of the regions.
Plug it the report PPM's into BS2 and it tells me how much SALTS to add
Really very easy once you do it a couple of time ,,,
My water is CaCO3 is  241 and high HCO3 is 218 and CaCO3 is 179,
It would be fine for a Stout or Big porter maybe .
It taste fine, no iron,no sulfur no smell,
I think the HIGH ALKALINITY brings a little bite to my beers when I used the well , I have notice since using
RO there not there anymore ,it take a couple of more batches to get a better answer or clarify in that dept.
This D30A water cartridge is it carbon ? or a micron to remome some TDS
Do you adjust your mash PH ?