Newbie question

Ive brewed two batches so far from extracts. First batch was an ale and i used tap water. Tasted fine. Second i used an ale and spring water. Tasted metallic. Is tap water better for homebrewing?

It depends. If your tap water was untreated (no filter or campden tablets) bottled water was probably a better choice. But either way, probably not a lot of Iron in either.

Metallic could have been from your equipment. What kind of pot are you using?

Was there anything different in your process between the 2?

Also could have just been from the extract, but less likely.

Keep brewing and see if it continues and congrats on getting into a great hobby.

+1 to the above.
And you never know, that metallic taste might condition out. I had a porter that had an awful metallic taste too. I let it sit for another month and the taste disappeared. Cheers!

Mine had a metallic taste that has since disappeared. Took about 3 weeks to do so.

cjever19 said:

It depends. If your tap water was untreated (no filter or campden tablets) bottled water was probably a better choice. But either way, probably not a lot of Iron in either.

Metallic could have been from your equipment. What kind of pot are you using?

Was there anything different in your process between the 2?

Also could have just been from the extract, but less likely.

Keep brewing and see if it continues and congrats on getting into a great hobby.

Click to expand...

A cheap pot that came with a beginner homebrew kit. I want to upgrade to a quality brew kettle. Should i treat the tap water for every batch?

Should i treat or filter tap water for every batch? Thanks for all the help!!

Sorry guys I'm going to go against the grain a little bit here.

I live in San Antonio TX and only use my tap water. My reasoning behind it is, our Chlorine isn't too extreme and it has over 200PPM as far as the hardness goes. If you're going to use bottled, reverse osmotic, or treated spring water I would suggest using gypsum to harden it.

I know I know it's not necessary to do so and it's not something talked about ALL the time.

Harder water has crap in it that everything bounces off of and will give you a better protein break from what I've read in most my brewing books.

Go to your water districts page and get a water report. See how hard it is, see if the PH is OK, see that the Chlorine is low.

In all fairness though, do what works for you.

Absolutely treat the water every time. You don't want Chlorine and Chloramine in your brew. Filter with basic household type carbon filter or use campden tablets.

+1 on waiting. My hefeweizen tasted terribly metallic, but it went away in a week.

If that doesn't do it for you, then something metal has affected your beer. If not, it's probably the extract. I doubt bottled water would do it... unless you were using natural spring water.

Ward Laboratories tests water for fairly cheap if you're interested in checking out the mineral content of your local spring water.

cjever19 said:

Absolutely treat the water every time. You don't want Chlorine and Chloramine in your brew. Filter with basic household type carbon filter or use campden tablets.

Click to expand...

Clarification: Treat your tap water. Bottled water should be fine.