Salty lager

[JCRochabrew]

Hi All

I did a Lager recipe on the 3th of April.

Used:
9 kg Pilsen Malt
3 kg Pale Ale Malt
2 kg Carahell

Mash at 66 ºC, droped to 64/65 at the end of a 75 min.

Got +/- 72 liters and add 100 g of Hallertau Saphir 60 min to the end of the boil and total boiling was 75 min.
Added 1 kg of table white sugar and 1,5 whirloc tablet

Got a OG of 1,0506.

Used Saflager 34/70, 1 pack for each bucetek fermenter at 15 ºC for 15 days.

After that let the teperature rise ans stay to 21 ºC for 8 days.
Cooled down to +2 ºC (I use a freezer with teperature control, so it takes 2 days toget to that temperature).
Left at that temperature for 2 weeks

Transfer to 3 kegs (19 liters) and carbonated.

Result- my lager is salty.

I use mineral water, that I buy but never tested before.

Any suggestions what it might be?

 

[DIYer]

I'm gonna go with...the mineral water, which has, um, minerals in it, including salts. Why would you use mineral water for your brew?

 

[JCRochabrew]

Hi
Sorry my mistake...

It is not mineral water.
It is water supplied by a company that has reverse osmosis and sells water.

Our main water supply is full of chlorine

 

[dmtaylor]

Some water softening processes result in additional salt. Perhaps your water source adds salt. Taste the raw water and see if it is salty.

Otherwise I have to wonder if there was salt in your sugar?! They look almost the same.

 

[mongoose33]

Since you're using RO water, what salts and minerals did you add? And in what quantities?

 

[JCRochabrew]

I buy the water from a water company- H2O.
They sell water, water dispensers, filters.

Our main water supply is a not safe to make the beer.
I buy the potable water that the company sells to the public.

 

[DIYer]

I buy the water from a water company- H2O.
They sell water, water dispensers, filters.

Our main water supply is a not safe to make the beer.
I buy the potable water that the company sells to the public.

This place? http://www.h2owatercompany.com/types-water/index.html

They list a number of types of water (not sure if they sell them all though--there is very little info on the "'their water" page...) Which one did you buy?

Edit: Ah, I found a link to a water report on their bottled water, buried in the links at the bottom of the page: http://www.h2owatercompany.com/H2O_bottle_water_report.doc

I don't know much about water reports, but someone here might be able to make something of it.

Edit 2: The water report is bogus. It just loosely describes their process and says the analysis for their water and the source water is attached, but they aren't.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Accidentally added a kilo of salt instead of sugar.

 

[JCRochabrew]

It was sugar for sure. But you making me think ...


An sugestions on how to go from here?

Im thinking about making another batch and mix it with this one, to avoid loosing +/- 32 liters

 

[Cavpilot2000]

The water that you bought probably started out as RO to remove the unpalatable stuff, but if sold as drinking water, almost certainly had minerals added back in. Drinking water generally tastes best with some bicarbonate and other salts, so the water is probably the culprit.
Some German Pilsners taste a little salty - Radeberger comes to mind.

Or maybe you added salt, but I imagine if you added a kilo of salt, your yeast would not have survived that level of salinity.

 

[mongoose33]

You may wish to delve deeper into the role water plays in brewing, and how you can--and often need to--adjust that water to improve the outcome.

You don't know what's in your water, and that probably is part of the problem, if not all of it.

 

[JCRochabrew]

You may wish to delve deeper into the role water plays in brewing, and how you can--and often need to--adjust that water to improve the outcome.

You don't know what's in your water, and that probably is part of the problem, if not all of it.

YES. Learning the harder way...

 

[JCRochabrew]

YES. Learning the harder way...

Unfortunalty in my town- Maputo, Mozambique it is not easy to get a water test for private use.
I tryed to buy in South Africa, small water test kits, but could not find it.
So the only thing of concern, until now was the clhorine content

 

[JCRochabrew]

One think that I forgot to mention- I was away fro 2 weeks and the freezer control broke; so when I got back the kegs where completly frozen, it took 4 days to unfrozen.

Can it be something related with this?

 

[Cavpilot2000]

One think that I forgot to mention- I was away fro 2 weeks and the freezer control broke; so when I got back the kegs where completly frozen, it took 4 days to unfrozen.

Can it be something related with this?

No. I've frozen beers before. Maybe not completely frozen, but 50% or so, and they recover just fine. It would not contribute a salty taste.

 

[deeve007]

To remove chlorine from tap water you just need to fill a jog/bottle and leave in the fridge for a day or two. Most places (well, at least many) add chlorine to their drinking water and people make normal tasting beer from it fine.
(NOT saying beer might not be better with a better water supply, just that it's not the end of the world if your drinking water does have some chlorine in it... )

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Yes, but some places (even in the US) have so much chlorine that the water is nigh undrinkable. Most often, I've experienced, when the primary water source is swamp water.

 

[JCRochabrew]

On the last batch I used campden tablets, in the municipality water

But it all goes back to the same issue- even the municipality water has no water report, so I might have issues later with the beer

 

[deeve007]

On the last batch I used campden tablets, in the municipality water

But it all goes back to the same issue- even the municipality water has no water report, so I might have issues later with the beer

Trial and error. I did my current first ever batch with the tap water, and will try another batch down the track using bottled water and see if there's any significant difference. I drink the tap water here all the time and like it, overnight in fridge any chlorine taste gone, so for me it's been no issue.

 

[JCRochabrew]

Thank you all

 

[Sailingeric]

Just call it a NE Gose Lager, hipsters will drink it up!

 

[Amadeo38]

Have you made non-salty beer with the same water before, using a similar recipe? Have you asked other people to taste this beer and see what they think? Don’t prime them by saying, “is this salty?”, but rather just ask what they think of it and what flavors they get. I’d wonder if you’ve got a different off-flavor and are perceiving it as salty.