Ever brew a batch of water?

[grathan]

I am curious how much flavor my equipment is lending to the finished beer. Anyone ever try this before? Go right through brew day to kegging. I know tying up a fermentor for a few weeks might not be entirely necessary, but it would be neat to compare the finished water vs. a source water for any off flavors.

 

[Ramitt]

I did ran water through my mash tun to seehow much was left and boiled a full kettle to oxidize the aluminum and determine boil off, but I see no point of holding it in the fermenter.

 

[kh54s10]

If there is no sugar in the water nothing will happen. Brewing wise with yeast.

I don't know where you are really going here??? If you are just running water through your system??? I don't know that you will really learn anything useful. If you run water through the system and it tastes significantly different than what you started with you have problems.

 

[Brewmex41]

If there is no sugar in the water nothing will happen. Brewing wise with yeast.

I don't know where you are really going here??? If you are just running water through your system??? I don't know that you will really learn anything useful. If you run water through the system and it tastes significantly different than what you started with you have problems.

That's the point he's getting at. To see if there's something along the way that could possibly contribute to off flavors. I'm not going to try it, but if anyone does I'd be interested in hearing the results!

 

[grathan]

Right. I get flavors from all my plastic buckets. My immersion chiller will never be %100 clean. Same with the stainless hop spider. Gunk behind kettle ball valves. Stuff seeps into keg gaskets. The keggle always seems to have a little bit of crud in the creases, and what if I did scrub it better? Would there be increased metal flavor? What about left over pbw that didn't rinse fully from the pump head? How about the no-rinse star San you used about 10 different places in your process? Ick, what about that nasty cooler mash tun that's not quite bright white like it used to be.. And what if it was brand new? Does that plastic smell make it into the beer? Burnt on heating elements. Conical gasket funk.I wonder if inside the co2 tank has rust or contaminents. etc..

 

[Brewmex41]

Did you ever do this?

 

[stevedasleeve]

Why bother? Brew a batch of beer and if it tastes good... you have beer, and if it tastes suspect... you have beer and data for reevaluation.

 

[grathan]

Did you ever do this?

Not yet, it's on the list though. I have made improvements like:


-Using glass fermenters over plastic(hdpe) when available.
-I've boiled my IC in PBW to turn it bright copper again.
-Built a keg/carboy washer that sees a lot of use.
-Stopped using a garden hose entirely.

-next up is eliminating the plastic bucket that catches mash runnings.
-replacing some keg seals
-swapping ball valves out to sanitary ones
-looking inside the pump head for visible growth or accumulation
-start cleaning the mash cooler instead of simply rinsing.

When I do the test I wanna be surprised if there is a difference, rather than somewhat expecting it.

 

[grathan]

Why bother? Brew a batch of beer and if it tastes good... you have beer, and if it tastes suspect... you have beer and data for reevaluation.

Your probably right. I am overreacting from smells coming from my hdpe fermenters after cleaning. smells from kegs after cleaning. But it's got me wondering anyhow about how clean my beer is. It is amazing how much surface area touches such a small batch of beer.

 

[pernox]

Your probably right. I am overreacting from smells coming from my hdpe fermenters after cleaning. smells from kegs after cleaning. But it's got me wondering anyhow about how clean my beer is. It is amazing how much surface area touches such a small batch of beer.

I don't think you're over reacting. You're trying to dial in your process and eliminate every possible variable to get the best product you can.

Some brew for the product, some brew for the process.

 

[motleybrew]

But, if you do have something contributing flavors, at least ALL your beer has it. So you are consistent, at least.

 

[dyqik]

The way flavors move to water will be very different to the way flavors move to beer though. Beer is acidic, has some reactive compounds in it, and has significant buffering ability. It also has yeast that will process many compounds in the wort. Water generally doesn't. So the water test wouldn't necessarily tell you anything about what flavors your beer will pick up and which flavors that it picks up will drop out with aging again.

 

[TopgunTango]

You can brew a simple, light blonde ale. Any unusual flavors coming from your equipment will be easy to pick off, seeing as the beer itself is virtually flavorless.