Is it possible that my water makes good light beer but bad dark beer?

I've made many great light beers, wheat beers and/or pale ales.

In my 3 attempts at dark beers (1 porter and 2 dark nut browns) I notice a really weird off taste. It's not undrinkable or foul, but the taste is unacceptable when I compare it with lighter beers I've made. The dark beer recipes contain chocolate malt and general darker malts.

I always use my tap water for mashing - so I'm guessing I can fix the problem by mashing with spring water? Any other reason why my darker beers have not been successful? Do they need more conditioning time?

bump.

mineral content of water will alter the appearance and taste of a beer but i would have guessed that it would matter more to lighter beers. with darker and heavier beers, i would have guessed that the flavors and colors would mask harder water. i'd like to know the answer to this too.

Well traditional wisdom says that water higher in sulfates and lower alkalinity can result in harsher-tasting darker beers due to the roasted malts.

I believe AJ Delange doesn't necessarily follow with the traditional wisdom, and I am sure he will contribute his two cents here at some point.

It's entirely possible and the reason why some styles evolved in the traditional cities (e.g. Stout in Dublin, Pilsener in Cz). I'm by no means a water chemistry expert, but I've incorporated the basic treatments listed in the first post in this thread and it's really helped with my darker beers:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

gr8shandini said:

It's entirely possible and the reason why some styles evolved in the traditional cities (e.g. Stout in Dublin, Pilsener in Cz). I'm by no means a water chemistry expert, but I've incorporated the basic treatments listed in the first post in this thread and it's really helped with my darker beers:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll read up on that thread you posted!

I believe BLAM had a nice section on this though I don't have it around...it talked about hardness and how (as stated above) some places are suited for lighter and some for darker beer...but I can't recall its affects on taste