Water quality affecting beer

[wyobrewer1]

Anyone have any experience with brewing with hard water? My city has extremely hard water and every one of my brews (5 so far, all extract with some specialty grains) taste ok but I've noticed an off taste in each. Almost medicinal. I brew with 1 gallon of distiller, 2 gallons tap and then top off with 2 gallons distilled. Could this be causing the off taste? Also, any experience with campden tablets? Thanks.

 

[jtejedor]

Water is a huge part of beer. Often times I feel it is not stressed enough. My water here is hard and lent a harsh edge to my beers. Since your doing extract I would do all bottled water since the extract will have minerals in it already from the water used to make it. Campden tablets are easy to use just crush one and add to tap water. IIRC one tablet treats up to be 10 gallons. If you have chloramines in your tap water the campden tablets would help with that. I would just try a batch with all bottled water and see if that helps with the off flavors. At least then you would know for sure if it was a water issue.

 

[diS]

There is great read how mineral content affects flavor (and other info's on water):
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge

Since you are brewing with extract you can pass parts about pH, RA, malts etc..

 

[Braufessor]

Brewing with extract - Just buy RO water for .39 cents and use that. Extract has minerals in it so it is probably best (especially with very hard water) just to use water with nothing in it.

I have very hard water and learning more about it and how it effects all-grain brewing is one of the 2-3 best things I have done to improve my beer.

+1 on Bru'n Water.

 

[signmastr]

I have very had water. I use an RV filter plus Campden tabs. http://www.filtersfast.com/P-Culligan-RV-500A-Inline-RV-Filter.asp?gclid=CP6T8oDjg7QCFSXZQgodgRQAJA

 

[hotlantaguy]

I'm fairly new to brewing (2 batches bottled) and I just use bottled spring water. seems to be good results.

 

[daksin]

Medicinal may be some chlorine or chloramines in your water supply. Do you have a regional water report? Adding some campden (potassium metabisulfite) before you start will remove those for sure and is very very cheap.

 

[wyobrewer1]

We have a ton of chloramine in the water. From what I've read, this won't boil off.

When would you add the campden tablet?

 

[iambeer]

All I know is that after moving to a new water supply without chloramine and with a 60F brewing room temperature, my beer suddenly was without off tastes. Before that I had Wash DC city water and about 70F brewing room environment.

But honestly I think the temps matter more than the water, if you can help it. You can always test by buying spring water on your next brew if you think the water or temps is the culprit.

 

[daksin]

We have a ton of chloramine in the water. From what I've read, this won't boil off.

When would you add the campden tablet?

Then that's definitely your medicinal flavor. Add the campden before anything else- before any other salts, before heating your water, and before mashing in. 1 tablet treats 20 gallons, so I usually just split it in half and put half in my strike water and half in my sparge. That's way overkill by double, but there's no flavor or yeast health detriment.

 

[stover123]

Guys you share very nice opinion on this topic. So I thing water is huge part of beer.

 

[EnjoyGoodBeer]

I use my well water ( slightly hard) done about 10 bstches and iv never tasted a off flavor.

Maybe Ill do a same reciepe with different water source. Just to see a difference.