First post. First home brew. First mistake!

Hello all, and thanks for all the great advice you folks give.

I'm currently fermenting my first batch of wort. It looks and even smells great--yeasty, but fresh and earthy. My wife and I were fairly meticulous to ensure that our first brew would be something we'll enjoy. Sadly, we did not attend to the repeated warnings about chlorine in city tap water.

I *did* boil my water for ten minutes prior to making the wort--but completely forgot about the chlorine factor when adding water to the cooled product. 2008 chlorine levels for our local water were around 1.00 ppm.

Here is the question: Are there chlorine levels that are low enough *not* to ruin beer taste? Or will the aforementioned level almost certainly affect the taste of our virgin effort?

Whatever the case, I'll be hooking up a reasonably priced Britta faucet filter in order to avoid this worry in the future.

how much water did you boil? how much tap water did you add afterwards?

id make an experiment. Make a small sample of the water used, and drink it, if it taste ok your beer would also be ok, water is part of the flavor.

From what I have read on most posts on this topic, if you tap water is what you drink it will make good beer. Take a look at the bottom of this post for similar threads. Also Welcome fellow Buckeye.

Cheers

I do not preboil any of my city water. I am not sure what the ppm is, but I have never had a problem.

What type of beer was it? Any impact from the chlorine (if there is any at all) are generally more noticeable in lighter beers.

Also, if you brewed with extract I agree the "if it's good to drink, it's good to brew" mantra. Water chemistry is more important for AG, but I'm still not convinced I am able to taste the traces of chlorine in my water.

Also, double check your municipal water report for whether you have chlorine or chloramine. If it's chloramine, you're better off with campden tablets as a brita won't remove much chloramine from the water.

Either way, your beer will be fine. I have city water treated with chloramine and I use my water straight from the tap. RDWHAHB, and welcome to HBT!

You know, plenty of brewers, including myself, use chlorinated water straight out of the tap, often without even boiling and our beers turn out fine.

You'll find as you progress in this hobby, there are a million ways to do things, there's a million theories, and all of them make beer.

There's a saying in brewing "ask 10 brewer's how they do things and you'll get 12 different answers...and they are all right.

You didn't do anything "wrong" by not de-chlorinating your water. Your beer will not automatically be ruined because you didn't.

A lot of brewing is about coming up with your own process, figuring out what works for you and your system. There is really no right and wrong, better or worse way to do things, there is really just what we prefer.

And next time you brew, try doing it differently, de chlorinate and see if there is any difference. But don't just assume your beer is ruined, because one brewer or one book or one theory says you have to do it one way or else. It's just not like that in brewing.

You have the typical new brewer's panic going on, I bet you think that if you look at this fermenter wrong, your beer is going to "die." That's not the case, your beer is not like a weak newborn baby, it is much hardier than that.

Take a read of this thread, and relax- https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wh...here-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/

In brewing you'll fine there is always more than one way to skin a cat...and they all work fine.

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. I'll let you know how it turns out.

In response to Redglass, I'm brewing a fairly basic lager using ingredients supplied by a local homebrew shop. I think this particular brew will help me determine whether current chlorine amounts will, in fact, be a problem. The folks at the homebrew store are especially adamant about ridding one's brewing water of any traces of chlorine or chloramine (hence my trepidation). You'd think I was committing a mortal sin by not doing so.

Revvy, your right about me falling prey to the new brewers' panic. I was fretting when the wort didn't show visible signs of fermenting after 12 hours. Now its going crazy in the corner of my home office. Love hearing the water bubble in the airlock!

Your not alone Futureman, from one newbie to another, I've hit the panic button several times on my first 3 batches. And probably will for many more to come... it seems all my beers have behaved properly, cant wait to sample em.

FIRST BREW!!!! yaaaaah! (pop)

welcome. don't worry. you'll be able to drink it.

for me, learning about brewing was knowing what I could FORGET as I moved forward, no prob.

basically, for everything, do what you CAN, but don't worry about what you *didn't do*, unless you can taste a difference. and yes, that is in a micro-nut-shell. HAVE FUN!

Revvy said:

A lot of brewing is about coming up with your own process, figuring out what works for you and your system. There is really no right and wrong, better or worse way to do things, there is really just what we prefer.

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I will disagree with you until the end of time on this point, as I think it leads people down a path of failure. If people REALLY want the best beer possible, they should follow best practices. Chlorine in water is bad for beer. It is noticeable. It will change the profile of your beer. If your palate cannot detect these things, good for you, however there are a good number of us who are sensitive to these off flavors and if our new brewers are the type that are, it could lead to discouragement in the form of an off finished product.

That said, chlorine and chloramines are not the end of the world. In a typical first batch of beer, you're likely to have some flaws just because it is your first beer. Let it go, improve your process, and enjoy it to the fullest. Not every batch I make is a winner, but the more you do this stuff, the better it gets.

carnevoodoo said:

I will disagree with you until the end of time on this point, as I think it leads people down a path of failure. If people REALLY want the best beer possible, they should follow best practices. Chlorine in water is bad for beer. It is noticeable. It will change the profile of your beer. If your palate cannot detect these things, good for you, however there are a good number of us who are sensitive to these off flavors and if our new brewers are the type that are, it could lead to discouragement in the form of an off finished product.

That said, chlorine and chloramines are not the end of the world. In a typical first batch of beer, you're likely to have some flaws just because it is your first beer. Let it go, improve your process, and enjoy it to the fullest. Not every batch I make is a winner, but the more you do this stuff, the better it gets.

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Have you ever taught anyone how to brew?? They are plenty stressed out already, they don't need any help along the path to a coronary. Personally I don't think the LHBS helped him out by stressing him about the chlorine -- he can't get it out now, can he? Let the new-to-brew types get the process down, and if they want to improve they can learn refinements later.

But, hey, you don't sound like you are open to changing your mind on this ("end of time"?), so whatever! "Perfection is the enemy of the good," I always say, but if you feel differently so be it.

start with core fundementals - and, yes, if you feel a discussion about campden tablets fits, GO FOR IT!

but, from my perspective it's just beer. hell, I burn my burgers sometimes, cause I need a refill, no huge deal, either.

it's amazing how closely related (tongue in cheeck) r.d.w.h.a.h.b. and 'shut up n drink' are (grin).
but they all point to do what you have to do so you can enjoy it.

brewmonk said:

start with core fundementals - and, yes, if you feel a discussion about campden tablets fits, GO FOR IT!

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I was just about to mention them. It is odd to me that the LHBS would be so firm on the "NO CHLORINE" bit but would not recommend Campden tabs!

So now they freaked out yet another new brewer(I include myself) but missed out on a sale of Campden tabs.

To the OP, my (municipal) water is fine to drink and I have made several batches with it. I also rinse the Iodophor off with tap water before contacting my wort/beer and have not had an infectioin. I have just used Campden tabs for the first time but gotta wait a few more weeks to see if they make a diff!

Keep on brewing and keep on reading this forum, lots of great advice from lots of great brewers

PS: don't buy the water filter, instead, buy a big brew kettle cause you know you are hooked and will be doing full boil all grain batches very soon!

Justibone said:

Have you ever taught anyone how to brew?? They are plenty stressed out already, they don't need any help along the path to a coronary.

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I've taught plenty of people how to brew, I give advice to a lot of people all day long, and I'll continue to do so. It isn't about having a coronary. A new brewer will find something to freak out about. I'm more concerned with an attitude that says, "No, none of these proven techniques matter... Just do what you want." It is anti-scientific, and if we're all working towards making the best beer possible, we should be heeding this advice.

I'm not trying to say that his beer will be ruined, that he should freak out, or that people won't go right on doing things the way they choose, I'm just saying that there's a better way of doing things a lot of the time, especially when it comes to science and flavor compounds. Batch vs. fly sparging, plastic vs. glass, that's all preference. Chlorine will change the flavor of your beer. Simple as that.

I work for a city that supplies water and would not be able to answer your question about chlorine or chloramine treatment. We use chlorine to oxidize bugs. chloramines are a byproduct of the reaction and of course includes the base chlorine atom. We use gas chlorine and maintain a residual free chlorine under 1 ppm.

So don't be surprised if your water purveyor can't answer that question.

Highbeam said:

I work for a city that supplies water and would not be able to answer your question about chlorine or chloramine treatment. We use chlorine to oxidize bugs. chloramines are a byproduct of the reaction and of course includes the base chlorine atom. We use gas chlorine and maintain a residual free chlorine under 1 ppm.

So don't be surprised if your water purveyor can't answer that question.

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Your city doesn't publish an annual water report? If you're really concerned, you can send your own water off for analysis.

The problem I experience with my muni water is that the report issued just gives a range of ppm for the key minerals. I thought they were just being lazy about the report until I realized due to the wild weather swings (and especially the summer droughts) it causes big swings in minerals and they have to add different levels of chlorine to account for what has happened in the reservoir.

For example, I brewed a red ale the weekend before last with tap water and it tasted fine. This weekend, it is undrinkably chlorine-tasting. Even after running it through a brita filter and refridgerating it was still undrinkable. We got some big rainstorms pouring down that added to the reservoir, so they had to add a lot of chlorine to kill the bugs.

The only thing I can really do is taste the water prior to brew day to see if it has a lot of chlorine. If it does, I'll have to give it a boil the night before and let it sit to vent out the chlorine.

I've brewed 3 batches now using water from the hose in my yard and they taste great. Well, the Dunkel is a bit suspect. More time in the bottle for that one.

But I don't think it was the water.

if it turns out good keep it up ive made good beer with tap water and i never even got a water report or anything