Funky aftertaste - Oakland, CA tap water?

Slightly new to brewing. The last 4 batches I have made have all been good, but they all have "that taste" that I cant figure out. I dont know how to explain the taste other than it makes you want to smack your tongue off the back of your mouth (in a odd, somewhat bad way).

I originally thought that it must be due to oxygenation. So I switched my sanitizer from one of the oxygen sanitizers to starsan as well as took every precaution to limit O2 exposure. I ferment in glass carboys. The "taste" came back.

THen I thought it must be too warm of fermentation. So I fermented the last batch around 64*F with as little fluctuation as possible. The "taste" came back.

Now im thinking its a pH/water quality issue? Thats my next step is to go out and buy some pH strips and obtain a water report from the city of Oakland, CA.

Any more advice? Its hard to explain the taste... kinda sour but not sour (no infection). Almost that "cardboard" taste that some describe with oxygenation, but then again im not sure thats it. My friends think the beer tastes good, but I pick that same "taste" out everytime.

Its defiantly an aftertaste that I am picking out.

I have been using the same yeast strain for all my brews ( Danstar - Nottingham) so that is something I could change as well.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Beers brewed with the taste - Pale ale, Nut Brown ale, pumpkin ale, IPA

Send PM to Deathbrewer, he lives in Oakland and has been brewing quite awhile. He could probably share a lot about the water

bottlebomber said:

Send PM to Deathbrewer, he lives in Oakland and has been brewing quite awhile. He could probably share a lot about the water

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PM sent. Thanks for your help!

i dunno about oakland but berkeley water is delicious! is that super helpful?

tonybus said:

i dunno about oakland but berkeley water is delicious! is that super helpful?

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Its the same water as Berkeley (east bay MUD). It is quite good. But I cant figure out this damn taste!

let me know when you find out im curious

I was getting a sharp tang from my darker AG beers. I chased it for a while, trying to eliminate variables. I ended up with pH as the culprit. I recently dumped 2 gallons of porter that weren't getting better with age. Instead on ordering a Ward labs water report, buying pH testing equipment, and pH adjustments, I went back to partial mashes. I couldn't be happier.
I got into this hobby because I like beer and cooking, not for a love of chemistry.

Franc103 said:

I was getting a sharp tang from my darker AG beers. I chased it for a while, trying to eliminate variables. I ended up with pH as the culprit. I recently dumped 2 gallons of porter that weren't getting better with age. Instead on ordering a Ward labs water report, buying pH testing equipment, and pH adjustments, I went back to partial mashes. I couldn't be happier.
I got into this hobby because I like beer and cooking, not for a love of chemistry.

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Thanks for the heads up, it is my suspicion that its the pH.

It was a REALLY sucky time period trying to chase the flavor down. So many bummer brews.

Here were my variables:

--I moved to full boils, so I thought the full boil might have driven off the free oxygen (top-off water has quite a bit of oxygen to bring to the party).
--All the batches used US-05, and I thought I might have had an autolyses issue pop up.
--Infection
--pH
--Other mineral component throwing things out of whack (sulphite, etc).

I just made my fourth successful partial mash brew after 3 AG failures. I might head back to AG again in the future, but for now, PM is great for me.

When you said, smack your tongue off the back of your mouth, first thing that came to mind was astringency. High temperature water and incorrect ph can give you that taste. Suggest you send a sample to Ward Labs and invest in a ph meter. Ph meters are accurate than ph strips.

I think EBMUD chlorinates the water sometimes (with chloramine). I use campden tablets (one per 10 gallon batch) in the mash water to remove any question that chlorophenols might be forming. They have a medicine/band-aid/cardboard type flavor if I recall. Extract batches don't seem to be as affected.

I work in a research lab a few blocks from my apartment. Ill test the water with a fancy pH meter when my boss isnt looking.


EBMUD does put chloramine in the water supply to act as an antiseptic. The guy who owns the brew shop over in san francisco told me about it/was bitching about it awhile back.

Edit: Also, Ill try the campden tablets next brew. Thanks for your input.

GoHawks said:

I work in a research lab a few blocks from my apartment. Ill test the water with a fancy pH meter when my boss isnt looking.

EBMUD does put chloramine in the water supply to act as an antiseptic. The guy who owns the brew shop over in san francisco told me about it/was bitching about it awhile back.

Edit: Also, Ill try the campden tablets next brew. Thanks for your input.

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It isn't so much the water pH as the mash pH that matters. Still, knowing your water pH should be really useful!

Best of luck!

Franc103 said:

It isn't so much the water pH as the mash pH that matters. Still, knowing your water pH should be really useful!

Best of luck!

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Yeah, I'm aware that I need to test both. I just dont have anything too fancy at home to test it. I could "borrow" a few pH test strips from the lab but im not sure I can afford a ton of pH equipment right now.

Anyone had any luck with those cheap pH meters on amazon? The ones that are about $20?

why not just use tasty bottles water? sounds a lot easier to deal with.

here is your water report and varies greatly by plant. I took worst case and ran simple APA recipe in EZ water Calc and it does estimate your mash ph to be a bit high. you cant replace testing your own mash ph if you can and or sending in water to wards. the campden is a must also because they do use some depending on plant.

http://www.ebmud.com/our-water/water-quality/water-quality-faqs

Why use tap? Just get spring water at the store, $.60-.80/ gallon. The yeast love the minerals in spring water anyway.

Also, the off flavor sounds like astringency ( got this one time and i hate it!) Your mashing could be too high temp, keep at 158 and you should be fine. I believe the pH of your wort should be 5.2, someone please correct me if im wrong bc i would hate to misinform.

Thanks for the replies and the report! I really appreciate your responses. I believe it is astringency.

Mash temp's were in the correct range.

All of my beers had a cidery taste to them, underneath the style flavor, kinda, if you get my drift. I started using a brita water filter on the tap, and i notice that the metallic mineral-y flavor i had grown used to is gone from my water. My coffee and tea tastes so much better, and I am sure my beer will be affected positively as well.



- B916

For what its worth, your water report shows averages, min, and maxs of various water quality parameters in your district as a whole. But depending on where you live it could be a mix of or a single source (well, surface water). Also chloramines (ammonia + chlorine) generaly dont have a smell or taste when dosed properly, it is chlorine by it self (free chlorine) when dosed to high will start to have that "swimming pool" taste and smell.

Also bottled "spring water" is sometimes just ro filtered spring water with ca and mg added back for taste, in essence the same as any other bottled water. Now I am a newb to brewing but I believe I have read that the other minerals besides ca and mg do play a role with the yeasties and those minerals are avalable in our tap water.

Agreed. Really as long as your water is clean from bacteria of chemicals, and has sufficient nutrients for the yeast, you shouldnt worry about it. I always use spring and my fermentation typically takes places within 12-18 hrs and dont have off flavors, so it would seem my yeast are happy. If youre concerned you can always add yeast nutrients to the water ( i guess if u were using distilled purified water) and that should work just fine. I just dont like the idea of using tap, too many variables...