Distilled has made my beer worse?

The last 4 batches I have done have gotten consistently worse with less adjustments. I have poor brewing water, high in bicarb.

Water Report:

The following are in ppm:
Sodium, Na 38
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 69
Magnesium, Mg 8
Total Hardness, CaCO3 206
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.2 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 31 (93 adjusted)
Chloride, Cl 32
Carbonate, CO3 6
Bicarbonate, HCO3 168
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 147
Total Phosphorus, P 0.61
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01

The distilled water that I use has had the following treatments: Micron Filtration, Ultraviolet Light, Deionization, and Ozone

The RO water has had the following treatments: Carbon Filtration,
Ultraviolet Light, Micron Filtration, and Ozone

1. IPa that ended up being 5% and 72IBU had an astringent hop after taste. Malt flavor was light bc of recipe, but good. 5 g RO water 1 g Gypsum 2 g CaCl2, Tap sparge water with the same adjustments.

2. Belgian Pale - was good but not great. Similar hop astringency. 2 g gypsum 2 G calc2 to 5 gal, sparge water 1/2 tap water 1/2 RO.

3. Old Ale - Distilled w 2g gypsum 2 G calc2 1 g Epsom salt. Per 5 gal. Can't taste much definitive malt character , just tastes muddy for a lack of a better term.

4. American Amber- Distilled water for mash and sparge, 2 g calc2 and 2 ml lactic, I thought my PH was high, why I added lactic. 5.42 theoretical PH. Sparge was all distilled. Similar taste to the old ale. Some "mineral" component, that's hard to identify.

All beers I pitched enough yeast and controlled fermentation temp. I also aerate with 02 stone. This weekend going to be brewing the cottage house Sasion.

Should I try minor water adjustments, or just sparge with tap water when I got the best results?

are u adding the 1-2 grams per gallon? I would imagine if not then your profile may be all out of whack using RO water.

I use distilled for an ipa i made. For 10 gallons for mash and sparge I added: 14 grams gypsum, 1 gram Chalk CaCO3, 2 grams baking soda, 3 grams Calcium Chloride CaCl2, and 6 grams Epsom Salt MgSO4. that would give me a hoppy bitter profile according to the brewers friend water calculator.

mrskunk said:

are u adding the 1-2 grams per gallon? I would imagine if not then your profile may be all out of whack using RO water.

Click to expand...

I'm using 1-2 g per 5 gallons.

You are sure your yeast and/or temp control are not to blame?

I like the Brunwater spreadsheet. It is busy but once you read through it, makes a lot of sense and really helps you determine your water profile for each recipe.

My water is very similar to yours but my bicarb is 212 and so is my Total Alk as CaCO3. I use this water undiluted to brew with and get really nice beers. The only thing I do to it is:
1) Start with unsoftened water from exterior tap
2) Filter
3) adjust mash and sparge pH with Bru'n Water spreadsheet
4) Add kettle salts to adjust sulfate:chloride ratio depending on style.

I end up with very good beer and others have brewed with far worse than yours. Is there some reason you don't just brew with your city water? I used bottled spring water up until this year and there is no appreciable difference between that and beers made with my own tap water. Funny thing is the old adage, "If your water tastes good it will make good beer," doesn't apply in my area because our water tastes awful (I used to live in Colorado Springs where the water is sooooooooooooo good and now I get liquid limestone from my taps), but beer made from it is quite good.

I'll give that a try, thanks!

I love COS! Have family out there but don't get out near enough. That water is so good, and cold nothing like our FL water here.