Found a water profile that tastes... Horrible...

[Gixxer]

So... I have been using bru n water a couple times now, I like the results so far... Until I used the pale ale bitter profile... Brewed a PA with almost 100 IBU's of sorahi ace, galaxy, Pacifica, and citra, and it took me an hour to realize the "wet stone" finish after tasting was from the water profile... For a while I was thinking meaty-minerally, but I knew my process was ok and the batch wasn't on yeast long enough for autolysis to be a factor...

So then my question is this... What water profile should I try next time to get the hops to really pop without getting that wet stone water taste? Oh, guess I could actually post the measurements I used... And I use distilled water to start...


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[mchrispen]

Your description seems to describe chalk or sodium bicarbonate to me, but it is fairly likely you are sensitive to sulfates. Look at the yellow bitter or amber bitter profiles for sulfates closer to 100 ppm and chlorides around 30-40 ppm, and still hitting a 5.4-ish mash pH.

Another method might be to do a small test batch without additions (acidify to achieve mash pH) and dose the resulting beer with measured amounts of gypsum and calcium chloride till you like the taste - then scale those additions into your full sized batch for the next brew. This way you know exactly where those levels need to be for that recipe!

 

[Yooper]

I have one beer that tastes great with the "pale ale profile"- the rest I really like better with 100-125 ppm of sulfate. some people love the higher sulfate bitter/hoppy beers, but I am not one of them.

 

[Gixxer]

I never thought about brewing a test batch without additions to the water and then adding to taste to come up with a baseline... That's a great idea!


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