Off Flavor Advice (Pool flavor?)

So I'm trying to narrow down where in my processes I've been going wrong, I've had beers in the past that are perfectly fine. First off here has been my current set up recently.

Hoboken Water Profile:
Aluminum ppb ND-177
Chloride ppm 71-110
Hardness (as CaCO3) ppm 64-102
Iron ppb 65
Manganese ppb 18
pH 6.1-8.1
Sodium ppm 39
Sulfate ppm 10
Total Dissolved Solids ppm 145-485
Zince ND-0.07

Recent Changes and set up (within the timeframe of these off flavors)
I switched to all grain recently.
Hitting my temps pretty well and maintaining them.
Don't have fermentation temperature control so most of my last brews have been free.
I keg.
I switched to using DME starters


So right now I go through the whole brew process, I try my hydro sample (which tastes absolutely delicious). Then let the whole thing run through. I keg and it tastes not nearly as good as beforehand. Then once I keg it a lot of the beers have this constant off flavor. I wasn't having this flavor at all when I was doing partial/extracts and kegging (those were well into the winter). Also on another note brewed something with a similar malt profile as a bock and it came out light. Also all aromas are disappearing completely, a witbier that had orange and coriander doesn't have any smell post fermentation. Mouthfeel is almost watery on all of them

do you have chloramines in your water?

Chlorine/choramine is the first thing I think of when you mention swimming pool water. Are you using K meta to get rid of them?

Also just adding, I've had many brews in the past using this water that have turned out perfectly fine, it has been a more recent event.

Mishkan said:

Also just adding, I've had many brews in the past using this water that have turned out perfectly fine, it has been a more recent event.

Click to expand...

My 0.02 ...
Cities can change water with no notice...Traditionally all the "boil notices" happen in the summer so they may up the clorine/cloramines...

I use city water run through a PUR filter adapted to a drinking water safe RV hose and 1 camden tab per 10 gallons. There is no pool here...

Also, Stouts + IPA and other "strong flavored" brews may cover up the pool taste a little better or your palate is getting better so you can taste it now.

Zamial said:

My 0.02 ...
Cities can change water with no notice...Traditionally all the "boil notices" happen in the summer so they may up the clorine/cloramines...

I use city water run through a PUR filter adapted to a drinking water safe RV hose and 1 camden tab per 10 gallons. There is no pool here...

Also, Stouts + IPA and other "strong flavored" brews may cover up the pool taste a little better or your palate is getting better so you can taste it now.

Click to expand...

I did the Haus Pale Ale back in February (3 weeks before super bowl) and it came out as one of my best brews yet. After that, none were really as good, brewed his IPA and all the hoppiness was gone (I can kinda blame that on the horribad Sulfate Ratio). But again, in my witbier the oranges and coriander disappeared as well. The pool smell is more of a hot tub style smell versus a full size swimming pool. Just blands out everything. The mouthfeel is just completely odd, a witbier that tastes watery is just wrong.


I guess I can try campden in my next batch to see if it fixes this.

Also any idea on how to recover this last batch? I was thinking of adding in some coriander and orange peel to this keg, and then transfer over to another. Since all the aroma was lost from those.

Basically didn't get much help earlier because I don't think I described it very well, or mislead people. So I'm rewriting it here.

Last (really) good batch was back in February around the super bowl. Since then have brewed multiple beers that have all had a very similar issue. The hydro samples all taste delicious, by the time they make it to the keg and carbonated they've lost almost all aroma, the mouth feel is relatively watery (even with a wheat beer), and there's almost a slight burn to them but I felt its more CO2.. It's very hard to describe properly (almost like drinking poolwater without any hints of chlorine whatsoever, horrible analogy). My witbier was watery and all the orange and coriander notes were gone. My IPA was just bitter with almost no hop aroma. My fauxbock came out light colored. I've used store bottled water and tap water. Always rinse with tap water+starsan.

Until just recently my fermentations have not been fermentation controlled. I started using starters (before that I just pitched in a vial or two). I never decanted off the top though. I used both my old bottling bucket and my carboy for fermenting.

This may help...

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Yeah already looked at all the sites with those descriptions, none of those fit too well. There's a reason I'm asking here, as in one of my theories is a dirty CO2 supply.

So here we go, third try in a different section

Basically trying to narrow down this issue and so far I've gotten little to no help. I've even brought it to other homebrewers and they were dumbfounded as well. It only happens with a few of my batches, some are extremely great, others do something like this. I haven't been able to fully debug it yet. I've been brewing for a bit over a year now.
When I brew my hydro sample tastes absolutely great, amazing, by the time it comes out of my keg almost no aroma remains. My IPA has almost no hop aroma, my Witbier lacks any orange or coriander notes (or even banana from fermentation). They have a slight burn to them, not sure if its over carbonation or something else. My witbier also fermented out extremely dry. I'm wondering if its that my fermentation temperatures are way too high so I'm fermenting off all the aroma? The smell is almost of water thats been sitting on the counter for a while. The mouthfeel, even on a witbier was relatively watery.
My theories are:
Dirty CO2 lines
Unregulated Fermentation Temperatures
Way too soft water (but this happened with bottled water)

High Mash pH
I added gypsum to my last batch so we'll see what happens.

Also any ideas on how to recover my latest witbier? I was thinking of just adding in some fresh coriander and orange peel to the keg in a strainer bag and then just hope that will filter it nicely. Or do a semi gumballhead and dry hop the witbier for ****s and giggles.

Too high of a fermentation temperature might produce fusel alcohols responsible for the "burn" you're describing. You want the ambient temperature around 60*F for the first five or so days of fermentation, until things start to level off -- sometimes cooler depending on the OG and how active the yeast is.

Are you venting off quite a bit of gas during the kegging process? In other words, are you boosting the pressure above what PSI charts tell you to use in an attempt to "speed carbonate" your beer? Every time you overcarb and vent a keg, you are stripping aromatics from the brew. If that is the case, slow carb your brew over a 2 week period at the PSI recommended by a chart for your serving pressure.

Oh, wits are supposed to be dry. Bone dry in fact. I'd be unhappy if my annual wit finished above 1.005. Flaked wheat is supposed to lend the beer a creamy mouthfeel paired with low FG, resulting in a highly quaffable wheat beer. What % flaked wheat are you using in your wit?

Are you adding enough late kettle/flameout/dry hop additions to your hoppy beers? The hydro sample is always going to be more intense than the finished product. The process of fermentation will always strip away some hop aromatics... you have to plan/formulate your brews accordingly.

Ok, so I need to lower my ambients, I just built a fermentation temperature a few days ago.

I'm not venting that much. I remembered there was little no aroma on this witbier even when I kegged it. I can't remember the other beers.

It was 50% wheat. 6lb in the batch. And then I added about 0.75 oz of coriander and 1 oz of orange peel.

Appreciate the help