Off flavor

I'm fairly new to brewing. I've brewed, bottled, and drank two batches from extract (A honey wheat, and English pale ale) They both tasted great with no off flavors at all. Then my third batch (English Brown Ale) was done bottle conditioning this weekend (4 weeks in primary, 3 in bottles) and after drink about 4 of them there is a huge plasticity taste in all of the bottles (some are drinkable, most are not). I used pretty much the same procedures for all three batches.

After reading on here it seems that this is caused by a chlorine problem. I do not use a chlorine based cleaner (easy-clean), but it seems that Lake Michigan water is chlorinated (the village report says .7 ppm) The question I have though, is if it is a water quality issue is why did it not affect my first two batches? And will it effect the two batches (a cream ale and a English bitter) that I currently have fermenting? I'd really hate to lose three batches of beer.

Honestly, I don't know.

Speaking from a non-brewing point of view, before I moved to my present locations, my Chlorine levels would fluctuate a ton during heavy rain seasons. The wife would notice it before me since she uses all that....stuff... that cure the dry skins or hair....or whatever.

I would assume, that water like any other mixture of compounds will fluctuate. I don't know how water analysis is performed, but I would assume it is not static at all and the values we get are yearly averages.

When you boil chlorinated water the chlorine will be driven off. It will also dissipate if you just pour it out into an open pot/container and wait. Exactly how long I don't know.

I dont know the report just gave chlorine parts per million. I use easy clean by JD Carlson and rinsed the parts. I did top off with tap water.

From my experience, chloramine is used in MOST municipalities. Use 1 campden tablet per 20 gal to instantly remove chloramine and chlorine before you use it.

It probably flucuates, like someone already said.

You can tell when they treated my tap water. You can smell chlorine as soon as you turn on the water.

It's really hard to say if your other two batches will turn out the same way. I think you'll have to wait and see.

It's probably a good idea to switch over to bottled water.

E

I use only bottled distilled water. Might cost me an extra $5 per batch but its worth it

Chances are you wait a month or three you will have 0 complaints. Im drinking a beer i brewed that was suppose to be for 4thof July but right now is sooo perfect and i thought it was a beer that was just ok in July,now its amazing. Firecracker red from Hombrewers recipe guide,subbing hopps though with centennial,and hallertau. Kinda risky,subbing hops though.Ill admit. I never give up on ok. Leave it and it usually will be incredible.Just my experience over and over. Even small amounts of dark malts seem to need time.

ChaosStout said:

I use only bottled distilled water. Might cost me an extra $5 per batch but its worth it

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I'd recomend staying away from distilled water if you can. It tastes good, but it doesn't have any minerals (esp. calcium) that are beneficial to brewing. If you insist on using it, add a little gypsum. RO or filtered spring water have more minerals in them and for the same cost, if not cheaper by a hair than distilled are a better way to go.

iron_city_ap said:

I'd recomend staying away from distilled water if you can. It tastes good, but it doesn't have any minerals (esp. calcium) that are beneficial to brewing. If you insist on using it, add a little gypsum. RO or filtered spring water have more minerals in them and for the same cost, if not cheaper by a hair than distilled are a better way to go.

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I use yeast nutrient also. If I was doing all grain I wouldnt use Distilled but with extract it doesnt matter