Anybody have chloramines in their water and not use campden tablets?

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phenry

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So in my quest to becoming a literate brewer, I kinda forgot to read about this part of off-flavors and water chemistry until now. So, the question is, if you can find a water report for your area that has chloramines, post the average measured ppm and if you take any measures to treat it.

It kinda sucks when you think you're doing everything right, until something comes and bites you in the a** like this. Oh well, the beers in the fermenter already, might as well RDWHAHB.
 
you don't HAVE to use campden tablets. you could just fill your kettle or HLT or whatever with water and let it sit uncovered overnight and the chlorine will evaporate out. or filter your water, or use RO.

I use campden tablets (1/2 per batch) because they require less planning ahead.
 
^^^ I heard it was chlorine that will evaporate off but not CHLORAMINE which is what the Campden tabs are for... Not 100 percent sure but I thought it was right... Either way like you, I just started trying them this batch after many without so I'll see how it turns out.
 
Not reading the rest of the thread, but my municipality uses chloramine for water treatment. I have ine of the plastic filter housings that holds a 10" x 2" filter cartrige. I buy carbon block filters at Sears for $6. My filter housing is fitted with garden hose connections on both sides, when not in use, I just put on hose caps and stick it in the fridge. I only change cartriges every 10 brew days. I have NO band aid taste or other off flavors.
 
Our water in Denver averages out at 1.58 ppm chloramines, and I use Campden tablets. I didn't used to, and had a couple of bad run-ins with chlorophenols in beers, so now I always use them.

And chloramines will not evaporate out of water like chlorine, so they have to be treated for, either with Campden tablets, reverse osmosis, or using the correct activated carbon filters. If you decide to go the cartridge route, make sure you check that it clears chloramines well. Not all of them are effective for chloramines, and the ones that are have flow rate requirements (typically fairly slow) above which they're not effective at clearing chloramines any more.
 
Even if I filtered my water with a carbon system, I would probably still use campden just to make sure
 
you don't HAVE to use campden tablets. you could just fill your kettle or HLT or whatever with water and let it sit uncovered overnight and the chloramine will evaporate out. or filter your water, or use RO.

I use campden tablets (1/2 per batch) because they require less planning ahead.

Incorrect, chloramine is used because of the fact that it is stable and does not come out of the water even by boiling, it has to be filtered or chemically removed.
 
Not reading the rest of the thread, but my municipality uses chloramine for water treatment. I have ine of the plastic filter housings that holds a 10" x 2" filter cartrige. I buy carbon block filters at Sears for $6. My filter housing is fitted with garden hose connections on both sides, when not in use, I just put on hose caps and stick it in the fridge. I only change cartriges every 10 brew days. I have NO band aid taste or other off flavors.

I use a similar 2" x 10" solid block carbon filter for my brewing water. The cartridge is supposed to be able to filter some 9,000 gallons between replacements. I replace the cartridge once every five years or so. I'm thinking you may be changing your out much too frequently. Not that there's anything wrong with that and the cost is low at $6, but my point is you could go much longer between change outs and your water will be just fine.
 
I used an outside water for a recent brew and really noticed on off flavor. I just talked to a lady at our city office sand she said we have chloramines. So I guess I'm either going to start using spring water, or start ONLY using filtered water. I have a small carbon filter that I change once a year, but it's so cheap that I might do it every 6 months. It ONLY feeds our drinking faucet, so it's hardly ever used.
 
I did a few batches without using the Metabisulfite (campden) and they had a noticeable off flavour that I narrowed down to the untreated water. I didn't realize they used Chloramines in my city water, but the same batch made with spring water convinced me that it's pretty important to get rid of it. I just use a knifetip of K-Meta in my 30L of brewing water, problem solved.

I looked at filters and such, and a 3$ bag of K-Meta was gonna last forever, and the Toronto tap water already tastes quite good so that's the route I took.
 
Incorrect, chloramine is used because of the fact that it is stable and does not come out of the water even by boiling, it has to be filtered or chemically removed.

It actually will come out with boiling, it just takes longer than free chlorine.
 
just a reminder to use treated water for your starter as well. I have made some brews using store bought water, but just used tap for the starter and still had that chlorophenol off taste.

That taste will fade with time, but my taste buds are very sensitive to it even when others cannot even detect it.
 
It actually will come out with boiling, it just takes longer than free chlorine.

Hmmm i was told it would not by the local water treatment guy, he said that is why the city i live in uses chlorine instead. Learn something new everyday, thanks for correcting me! How long of a boil does it take to remove chlormine?
 
Hmmm i was told it would not by the local water treatment guy, he said that is why the city i live in uses chlorine instead. Learn something new everyday, thanks for correcting me! How long of a boil does it take to remove chlormine?

Yeah, I was surprised to see you can remove it by boiling too since I read so many replies here stating you couldn't. The link in rockfish's reply just above yours tells you all the details. But I would estimate that the process of bringing your water to a boil then holding at a steady boil for 30 minutes would be at least as good or better than a single pass through a carbon filter. On the other hand campden or sodium metabisulfite works instantly and requires an almost unmeasureably small amount to treat the water for a normal batch that you can buy a lifetime supply for a few bucks and save the energy costs of boiling.
 
In Fort Worth our water has gotten insanely chlorine/chloramine-filled. It's so bad right now that I had to switch to using bottled water (and we eventually got a faucet-mounted filter on the kitchen sink) for making coffee because there was such a strong chlorine taste. My wife read that when water is very chlorine/chloramine filled, it can be ignited in your hair when you use a hair dryer. Sure enough, she claims to have seen puffs of smoke on occasion when drying her hair.

I can say it definitely comes through in beers. It only gets worse over time.

I use the faucet-mounted filter for drinking water and food but now treat regular tap water with campden before use.
 
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