kennethm

Recipes 

What kind of taste does chlorine give in beers? I am new to brewing and only have 2 batches of extract under my belt. They are a Muntons wheat with a orange zest and corriander tea, I know a bit extreme for a new brewer. The second was a Coopers Stout!! Though rather tasty they both have a kinda sharp wierd taste to them that I can't quite explain. They were both brewed with unfiltered tap water, because I am kind of impatient and just havent bought a charcoal filter yet. Any thoughts? Thanks.

GilaMinumBeer

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It can bind with phenols and give a medicinal character. Chloraseptic like.

Yooper

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Chlorine or chloramines in the water can make beer taste a little plasticy, or medicinal. I've heard people describe it as a taste of "band aids". Sometimes a weird spiciness, like cloves, is also used to describe the taste. Generally speaking, that flavor comes from chlorophenols.

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Matt Up North

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It changes the flavor adversely. Being a person that has had to deal with chlorine and chloromines in my water, I advise using bottled water until you get your process somewhat down. In that time (six months or so) you will have drank a lot of beer (both yours and others) and be able to pick out a difference between your tap water and the bottled water. I ended up going to a house water filter just below my sink in order to maintain good flavor in my water. Brewing now with (neutral) water is a savior to my process at home.

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Immith

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How old is your beer? I'm not a new brewer but still getting different types under my belt. If you're getting that odd hard to describe sharp flavor at the beginning of the taste(rather than at the end, ie. you taste it first then it clears and you taste the beer) it's probably just "green beer." I didn't know that was a huge issue and am now waiting on my chocolate oatmeal stout

I've mostly brewed wheat beers and kolsch and never had to wait, or had been lazy and given the beer a few months before I even bottled/kegged it!! But now I'm going all out eager as hell and am learning you gotta wait.

Anyways, thought I'd throw that in. I have a whole house water filter as well as I get a lot of rust which affects the color of the beer(!!!) (even showers are reddish!) and that takes care of most of it, and I use a campden tablet as well(old habit, tho I'm sure it gets any remaining chlorine) before I boil as it gets rid of chlorine and chloramine.