Will switching to AG alleviate that "homebrew" taste?

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Mikey_Dawg

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I've been brewing for almost 7 years now and have gotten pretty decent at it but I have never moved past partial mash brews. Even still, at times I still get that "homebrew" taste that reminds me that I am not producing commerical quality beers just yet.

The "homebrew" taste is more evident in some beers than others and IMO seems to get worse the longer I keep my beer stays in the keg.

Will going to AG minimize that taste I am referring to? I plan to do it very soon, but am trying to wrap up a huge basement /bar project I've been working on all year first. Thoughts?
 
You could start pasteurizing and filtering your homebrew, that would make it taste much much more like commercial beer as a lot of it is filtered (obvious exceptions are hefs and belgian ales, and some others).

Personally I LOVE the 'homebrew' taste, it's super fresh, it's got zero additives or preservatives, and it's chock full of vitamins.

Can you describe what "homebrew taste" you're referring to, specifically what it is that you don't like? Perhaps there is a common ingredient or part of your process that contributes to a specific taste, that could be eliminated or at least compensated for, this could be anything from the water you use to the sanitization practices, or the yeast strains you favor. It could be that the LHBS you get ingredients from has stale malt extracts, or perhaps just a brand of malt extract that you don't care for (Breiss tastes different than Munson, for example).

Give us some more info and we'll try to help you figure it out!
 
Im guessing, but the "homebrew" taste he might be referring to is either oxidation, stale malt extracts, high ferm temps, or sanitation issues. Being a brewer for 7 years Im assuming you can cross off sanitation (and possibly high fermtemps? what is your process for regulating temps?). imo yes you can get rid of that taste, or at least eliminate a few variables.
 
You could start pasteurizing and filtering your homebrew, that would make it taste much much more like commercial beer as a lot of it is filtered (obvious exceptions are hefs and belgian ales, and some others).

Personally I LOVE the 'homebrew' taste, it's super fresh, it's got zero additives or preservatives, and it's chock full of vitamins.

Can you describe what "homebrew taste" you're referring to, specifically what it is that you don't like? Perhaps there is a common ingredient or part of your process that contributes to a specific taste, that could be eliminated or at least compensated for, this could be anything from the water you use to the sanitization practices, or the yeast strains you favor. It could be that the LHBS you get ingredients from has stale malt extracts, or perhaps just a brand of malt extract that you don't care for (Breiss tastes different than Munson, for example).

Give us some more info and we'll try to help you figure it out!

I don't know that I could really describe the taste other than, I know when I taste it that it was homemade, not a commercial beer. It inst necessarily a bad thing and isn't always super noticeable.. but I guess it could be considered a flaw when comparing to commercial beers.

I am very thorough with sanitization and always use starsan....I always clean everything before and after use. I never pull anything off the shelf and assume it is still clean..always re-sanitize before use.

I buy all ingredients from Austin Homebrew and they are usually fresh from what I gather. Water could be a contributing factor, I've never had my water tested.
 
Im guessing, but the "homebrew" taste he might be referring to is either oxidation, stale malt extracts, high ferm temps, or sanitation issues. Being a brewer for 7 years Im assuming you can cross off sanitation (and possibly high fermtemps? what is your process for regulating temps?). imo yes you can get rid of that taste, or at least eliminate a few variables.

I always ferment in my basement which never gets any higher than 72, but usually stays around 70. Like mentioned above, I don't believe it is sanitization or ingredients.

I really wonder if the taste is just from using an extract vs. all grains for the ingredients.

I suppose it could also be something that develops when my beer stays in the keg for longer than 2 or 3 months?

FWIW, my family and friends (even other brewers) all think I make great beer.... I guess I am just overly critical and when I notice what I consider a flaw, I want to address it. But part of my wonders if simply going to AG will alleviate the taste I experience at times.
 
Water could be a contributing factor, I've never had my water tested.

I always ferment in my basement which never gets any higher than 72, but usually stays around 70.

I'd look to these two things first. Water can play a role, and if your ambient basement temperatures are 70-72, you're wort is probably closer to 75-77 during active fermentation, which can create some different flavors.

Even something as simple as a water bath and a couple frozen bottles of water can get your fermentation temps a little more manageable.
 
I'm guessing its due to fermentation. I was in your shoes. Once I started making starters, using pure O2, and controlling fermentation temps, my beers started tasting as good as commercial beers (once and a while, better). If ambient temp is 70, then the fermentation is likely going higher than that (it produces heat) which could cause flavor issues. Switching to all-grain won't fix that.

I've had some really good beers made with extract. It is possible. I'd get your fermentation processes in check before you switch to all-grain (but then I'd switch to all grain - its super fun).
 
A few things to consider, because there is no reason for any of your beer to taste different than commercial beer.
- Your water, if you are using tap water, go buy spring water from Walmart and see if it is better
- Your yeast and their health, unhappy yeasts do bad things to beer. Make sure you are pitching enough at a proper temperature
- Fermentation temperature. This goes hand in hand with happy, healthy yeast. Usually, the cooler the better for a "clean" tasting beer.
- Sanitation. It seems like you have this covered, but it's very important. Keep in mind, this means all of your kegging equipment, too.
- Clean and proper beer lines. You're not using hoses from the hardware store, are you? If your lines are old, try buying some new ones and see if that helps.
- LME VS DME. I have heard a lot of people complain about this taste when using old LME. What kind of extract are you using?
Hopefully you get this squared away.
 
A few things to consider, because there is no reason for any of your beer to taste different than commercial beer.
- Your water, if you are using tap water, go buy spring water from Walmart and see if it is better
- Your yeast and their health, unhappy yeasts do bad things to beer. Make sure you are pitching enough at a proper temperature
- Fermentation temperature. This goes hand in hand with happy, healthy yeast. Usually, the cooler the better for a "clean" tasting beer.
- Sanitation. It seems like you have this covered, but it's very important. Keep in mind, this means all of your kegging equipment, too.
- Clean and proper beer lines. You're not using hoses from the hardware store, are you? If your lines are old, try buying some new ones and see if that helps.
- LME VS DME. I have heard a lot of people complain about this taste when using old LME. What kind of extract are you using?
Hopefully you get this squared away.

Using LME from Austin Home Brew solely.

I always pitch yeast after the wort goes through an ice bath and is at or below 80 degrees. I am only doing partial boils though at this point.

Use proper beverage lines and will run starsan through them between kegs.... and kegs are always thorough clean. Usually I have a new batch of beer to put in them as soon as they go dry so I pull them from kegerator, clean them, all the new beer, and carbonate...so I dont have kegs sitting around at room temps or higher growing funk in them.

I think the likely candidates are water and/or fermentation temps as well. I honestly have always thought that going to AG/full boil would produce a better beer than a partial boil extract beer.

I have probably suggested that there is more of a flaw in my beer than their actually is, but what exactly I am describing is really hard to convey on a message board. Thanks for the responses regardless.
 
Since you can't describe what a "homebrew" taste is, I recommend you have more experienced brewers or certified beer judges taste you beer to see if they can tell you what they taste in your beer. Have you entered any of your beers in competitions? You would really hate to go through all the trouble & expense of switching over to all-grain only to keep tasting "homebrew" in your beer!
 
I'm guessing its due to fermentation. I was in your shoes. Once I started making starters, using pure O2, and controlling fermentation temps, my beers started tasting as good as commercial beers (once and a while, better). If ambient temp is 70, then the fermentation is likely going higher than that (it produces heat) which could cause flavor issues. Switching to all-grain won't fix that.

I've had some really good beers made with extract. It is possible. I'd get your fermentation processes in check before you switch to all-grain (but then I'd switch to all grain - its super fun).

Can't say "THIS" enough.

It just plain doesn't matter if you're brewing extract or all grain. To get high quality beer the only things you need to look at are:

Pitching the CORRECT NUMBER of HEALTHY yeast cells.
Oxygenating properly with pure O2 to get 10ppm dissolved oxygen
Fermenting at exactly the correct temperature for the ENTIRE duration of the ferment.
Pitching the yeast at or below fermentation temperatures.

If you do those things and are working with a good recipe, your beers will be commercial quality.
 
Dry malt extract may help clean that taste up, esp with a good portion of it added as a late addition.
When I used Liquid Malt Extract, I noticed that extract twang. Never noticed it with Dry Malt Extract.
When I moved to late extract additions (last 15min of boil) I noticed beers became lighter & truer to color expected.

I've gone as High as adding 50% of Dry Malt Extract in last 15min of boil of a partial mash batch.

That being said since I have moved to all-grain I feel my beers are cleaner, but I did struggle with astringency in some of my beers in the first several AGs. Each method has it's problems.

Ferm Temp Control is my next issue to tackle on a budget and limited space..... going to give one of these a shot https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/new-product-cool-brewing-fermentation-cooler-296052/
 
Mikey_Dawg,

I think I know what you mean. When I was extract brewing, I first did partial boils, then moved to full boils. I seemed to notice an odd flavor with my beers. I attributed it to that extract "twang" that I had read about on HBT. I switched to all grain and that flavor was gone. At the time, that was the only change I made to my brewing. I was still using the same water, still fermenting in my basement, still doing full boils.

I have just acquired a small chest freezer to use as a fermentation chamber and built the Ebay aquarium temperature controller to run it. I have my first brew in there right now. Temperature is 65* and the fermentation is rocking. We will see how it tastes in a few weeks.
 
Mikey_Dawg,

I think I know what you mean. When I was extract brewing, I first did partial boils, then moved to full boils. I seemed to notice an odd flavor with my beers. I attributed it to that extract "twang" that I had read about on HBT. I switched to all grain and that flavor was gone. At the time, that was the only change I made to my brewing. I was still using the same water, still fermenting in my basement, still doing full boils.

I have just acquired a small chest freezer to use as a fermentation chamber and built the Ebay aquarium temperature controller to run it. I have my first brew in there right now. Temperature is 65* and the fermentation is rocking. We will see how it tastes in a few weeks.

Extract twang...hmm...this might be what I am describing. It isnt always as noticeable from beer to beer and overall, I am very pleased with the results of my beer. I just notice something from time to time that I could do without....again, not anything that would make me think the beer was bad, but just an off flavor you dont taste with commercial beers.
 
Extract twang...hmm...this might be what I am describing. It isnt always as noticeable from beer to beer and overall, I am very pleased with the results of my beer. I just notice something from time to time that I could do without....again, not anything that would make me think the beer was bad, but just an off flavor you dont taste with commercial beers.

Have you tried any recipes with late extract addition? It will allow for higher hop utilization as well so be sure to take that into account or you'll end up with bitterer beers than anticipated. On the flipside you can save $ on hops when doing IPAs and the like if you do a large late addition. =]

Personally I've done ten extract batches and ~5 all-grain batches this year, and I did NOT notice any distinct taste brewing extract vs. all-grain. I have done both 100% early addition as well as 25/75 early/late addition for my LME (I never use DME except for starters) and haven't noticed the 'twang' that most people talk about, but my LHBS turns over LME VERY fast and I feel like it's about as fresh as you can get.

I have noticed more 'interesting' flavor from higher ferm temps as summer has rolled in - my fermentation area is closer to 70' in the summer, and 66' in the winter, but it stays pretty constant at that temp, with my fermenters reaching a max of about 72' during very vigorous fermentation. However these flavors seem to mellow out after being in the keg for 1-2 full weeks (plus the 2-3 weeks in primary).

My kegs don't generally last more than 2 months, so I can't say anything about how they hold up.

I would second the idea of using bottled or RO water for a few batches just to see if that takes changes anything - also, assuming you're on a city water system vs. a well, does your water contain chloramine? You can remove this from your water by letting it sit out uncovered overnight, or by boiling before you start adding ingredients, my understanding is that this can change the taste of beer a bit if the city adds higher than average levels.
 
Extract twang...hmm...this might be what I am describing. It isnt always as noticeable from beer to beer and overall, I am very pleased with the results of my beer. I just notice something from time to time that I could do without....again, not anything that would make me think the beer was bad, but just an off flavor you dont taste with commercial beers.

I think I know exactly what you mean. Its not bad, but its just kinda makes you think, this isn't quite as good as it should be. I think pitching rates and fermentation control were a big part of my slight off flavors. I have a theory that going all-grain gets a lot of props for eliminating these kind of "meh" beers because brewers typically start to get more sophisticated with starters and ferm control at the same time as going all-grain. Correlation vs causation. Its just my pet theory, though. Ymmv.

Just fyi - I don't believe that chloramines will dissipate by leaving the water out over night. I think chlorine will, but my understanding is that the benefit of chloramines is that they are more stable. Using 1/4 a campden tablet per 5 gallons of water will get rid of chloramines.
 
Just fyi - I don't believe that chloramines will dissipate by leaving the water out over night. I think chlorine will, but my understanding is that the benefit of chloramines is that they are more stable. Using 1/4 a campden tablet per 5 gallons of water will get rid of chloramines.

Thanks a lot for adding that, I'll have to read up on it - I think you're right about chlorine evaporating, I had assumed (oops) that it was the same for chloramine! Thankfully my city doesn't add chlorine or chloramine so I get to just use my tap water.
 
My first beers had a 'twang' to them that I thought was from using extract and it is what pushed me to all grain. What I have learned from that is that it is the process that makes the beer. Good recipes, good technique, and attention to detail is what makes good beer.

The beer I make now is 100% better than the beer I made when I first moved to extract. That beer was better simply because I was getting better at making beer. I'm going to make some extract beers this winter to test my theory.

In fact, I was recently mad that my beer tasted exactly like a commercial beer. I wanted something unique.
 
I'm guessing you're just tasting more yeast than in commercial beers. I really think the Homebrew taste is yeast. And i'm with you, I taste it too, although I enjoy it. Commercial beers are filtered as mentioned above, and force carb, so there's not much yeast with the exception of hefe's and belgians (etc).
 
My bet is yeast health. The too-high pitching temperature, the too-high fermentation temperature, and maybe even underpitching(?) would cause some off-flavors that might not be bad, but not on par with similar commercial beers.

If that is the case, then going AG won't fix it.

There seem to be two things that made my beer better, and one was pitching at under 68 degrees for ales, and keeping fermentation temperatures on the low side of the yeast strain's "optimum fermentation temperature". For most ale yeast, that is around 64 degrees. You could get a super cheap stick-on thermometer to see the actual beer temperature, as I've seen an active fermentation get up to 10 degrees higher than ambient temperature.

The other thing that really makes a huge difference is making sure to not underpitch yeast. That usually means 2 or more packages of liquid yeast, or a starter.
 
My bet is yeast health. The too-high pitching temperature, the too-high fermentation temperature, and maybe even underpitching(?) would cause some off-flavors that might not be bad, but not on par with similar commercial beers.

If that is the case, then going AG won't fix it.

There seem to be two things that made my beer better, and one was pitching at under 68 degrees for ales, and keeping fermentation temperatures on the low side of the yeast strain's "optimum fermentation temperature". For most ale yeast, that is around 64 degrees. You could get a super cheap stick-on thermometer to see the actual beer temperature, as I've seen an active fermentation get up to 10 degrees higher than ambient temperature.

The other thing that really makes a huge difference is making sure to not underpitch yeast. That usually means 2 or more packages of liquid yeast, or a starter.

Why would all of Austins instruction sheets indicate to pitch once the temp reaches 80 degrees? I dont use kits much anymore but for years 80 degrees has been embedded in my head as the proper pitching temp. I have always used dry yeast though, never tried liquid yeast.

And if I do make something that is on the higher grav side, I will always pitch two packets.

I will work on lower temps though and see if this taste goes away.
 
Why would all of Austins instruction sheets indicate to pitch once the temp reaches 80 degrees? I dont use kits much anymore but for years 80 degrees has been embedded in my head as the proper pitching temp. I have always used dry yeast though, never tried liquid yeast.

And if I do make something that is on the higher grav side, I will always pitch two packets.

I will work on lower temps though and see if this taste goes away.

I have no idea why their instructions state that- but try pitching at 62 and then letting it warm up to 65 degrees and hold it there. It will make a huge improvement.
 
Why would all of Austins instruction sheets indicate to pitch once the temp reaches 80 degrees? I dont use kits much anymore but for years 80 degrees has been embedded in my head as the proper pitching temp. I have always used dry yeast though, never tried liquid yeast.

And if I do make something that is on the higher grav side, I will always pitch two packets.

I will work on lower temps though and see if this taste goes away.

The 80F number is there as the high limit. It says 70-75F on vials of White Labs yeast, for example.

That doesn't mean that it's not better to pitch at lower temps. You absolutely want your fermentation to happen at around 68F for most ale yeasts. Farmhouse, Saison, and Hef yeasts like higher temps, but those are exceptions.

My first four batches of beer were extract, and the first two were not good. The second two were great. The difference? A chest freezer with a thermostat.
 
With all due respect to the OP (sincerely), what is troubling you about the homebrew taste? We all make homebrew primarily, I think, to get away from the monotonous taste of commercial beers. It is one of the ways we express creativity and should be proud of what we create (I know you are). Home brew is different from commercial beer and we should revel in that fact. If I wanted my home brew to taste like a commercial brew, I would not be involved in this passion. The nuances in flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel are ours to develop and share. We are a unique breed that happens to create unique brew. Stand proud with your "homebrew taste". Off the soapbox now. :mug:
Susie
 
Why would all of Austins instruction sheets indicate to pitch once the temp reaches 80 degrees? I dont use kits much anymore but for years 80 degrees has been embedded in my head as the proper pitching temp. I have always used dry yeast though, never tried liquid yeast.

And if I do make something that is on the higher grav side, I will always pitch two packets.

I will work on lower temps though and see if this taste goes away.

I think we found the problem! I suggest you try White Labs or Wyeast, make a starter & pitch at 70-75F temps. Problem solved! :mug:
 
I too used to have the indescribable "homebrew" taste. I used mainly liquid yeast and it made no difference between that and dry yeast. For me the homebrew taste went away when I started making yeast starters. I made no other changes to the brewing process. About 5 batches after I started making starters I made a batch on a whim one day without a starter and that good ole meh homebrew taste was back. All this being said was when I was only doing extract brews. My advice would be to try yeast starters on your next couple of batches and tell us how it goes.
 
SusieBrew said:
With all due respect to the OP (sincerely), what is troubling you about the homebrew taste? We all make homebrew primarily, I think, to get away from the monotonous taste of commercial beers. It is one of the ways we express creativity and should be proud of what we create (I know you are). Home brew is different from commercial beer and we should revel in that fact. If I wanted my home brew to taste like a commercial brew, I would not be involved in this passion. The nuances in flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel are ours to develop and share. We are a unique breed that happens to create unique brew. Stand proud with your "homebrew taste". Off the soapbox now. :mug:
Susie

For me and think the OP as well I was trying to get away from the monotonous homebrew taste that was present in each batch I brewed. I think you are confusing what we are trying to describe with good quality craft beer. I was sick of having this same off flavor in every beer I made wether it was a pilsner, IPA, porter, etc. they all had this same common off flavor that wasn't present in the microbrews I was trying to mimic. I think it gets called the "homebrew" taste because you only find it in homebrew. Since I have started making starters I have had people try my beer and comment that it doesn't have that homebrew taste that they have always experienced with other people's homebrew.
 
OP, I live in Austin and started out using LME from them since their kits come that way. I've since switched and can definitely tell the difference. Maybe it is just me, but I can't recall having a beer I made with AHB's LME that didn't have a twang to it. I still brew partial mash, but switching to DME has notably improved my output.
 
For me and think the OP as well I was trying to get away from the monotonous homebrew taste that was present in each batch I brewed. I think you are confusing what we are trying to describe with good quality craft beer. I was sick of having this same off flavor in every beer I made wether it was a pilsner, IPA, porter, etc. they all had this same common off flavor that wasn't present in the microbrews I was trying to mimic. I think it gets called the "homebrew" taste because you only find it in homebrew. Since I have started making starters I have had people try my beer and comment that it doesn't have that homebrew taste that they have always experienced with other people's homebrew.

You are correct. I really am happy with 95% of the beers Ive made over the past 4 or 5 years when I really felt like I got past the learning curve of home brewing (at least in the partial mash style).

Last night I poured a couple strawberry blondes that I made a few months back and A) It was excellent B) I did not notice this taste.

I also have a Rye Pale Ale on draft that I had a week or so ago (that is even older than the SB) and when I poured one of those I did notice the taste we are discussing. I still drank the beer and enjoyed it very much but if I had any complaint about the beer, that would be it. I dont recall noticing it with a Cascade IPA I have on draft right now though.

Could this taste develop as the beer ages? That was my first thought when I tasted it as I simple dont recall the taste when the beer was more fresh.

At the end of the day, all I was really asking is will AG batches improve my homebrew vs. extract. This is the only complaint I have about my beer and like I've pointed out, I dont notice it more times than I do which really only makes it harder to pinpoint.

I've got some good info out of the discussion though. I am planning on moving to AG regardless sometime in the next year as it is long past due. Probably start with a simple BIAB setup to get the ball rolling. But right now, I am building my brewing domain in my basement so I want to get that done first.
 
OP, I live in Austin and started out using LME from them since their kits come that way. I've since switched and can definitely tell the difference. Maybe it is just me, but I can't recall having a beer I made with AHB's LME that didn't have a twang to it. I still brew partial mash, but switching to DME has notably improved my output.

Interesting.... I just ordered ingredients for my next two beers, wish I had known. Guess I will use the DME next time around to see how that turns out.
 
Something that just hit me that I should clear up. Austin says to get the wort down to 80, move to primary fermenter, and then top off water and pitch the yeast. So I bet I am actually pitching at a temp much lower than 80 when you actually top off with cold water. I've never measured the exact temp but will this next time around to see how far the temp drops when the cold water is added.
 
Something that just hit me that I should clear up. Austin says to get the wort down to 80, move to primary fermenter, and then top off water and pitch the yeast. So I bet I am actually pitching at a temp much lower than 80 when you actually top off with cold water. I've never measured the exact temp but will this next time around to see how far the temp drops when the cold water is added.

That's a good point. Also, try an ice/water bath in a cooler or bin and put your fermenter in there. Monitor the actual fermentation temperature of the beer with a stick-on thermometer (like for aquariums) and keep it under 68 degrees.

Some yeast strains, particularly So4 and nottingham, have a distinctive taste if they get over 72 degrees. S05 does "ok" up to about 74 degrees, but gets fruity over about that temperature.

I noticed that if I use nottingham and S04, 62 degrees is the best temperature for them, while 68 degrees seems to be perfect for S05.
 
I think I just got rid of my "homebrew" taste. I think the fermentation temps were the culprit. You said you didn't notice it as much with your cascade beer. If it's a high fermentation temp flavor it may be harder to pick up in such a fruity beer. Mine would get worse two weeks after bottling but took longer to develop in the keg.
I don't think pitching at 80 would be horrible as long as within a couple hours you could get it in the low 60's. I usually pitch at 75 the put the fermenter in my swamp cooler with plenty of ice. The swamp cooler water is leftover from using a pump to recirculate ice water through my IC. It's usually around 50 degrees so the temps of the wort are quickly brought down.
 
That's a good point. Also, try an ice/water bath in a cooler or bin and put your fermenter in there. Monitor the actual fermentation temperature of the beer with a stick-on thermometer (like for aquariums) and keep it under 68 degrees.

Some yeast strains, particularly So4 and nottingham, have a distinctive taste if they get over 72 degrees. S05 does "ok" up to about 74 degrees, but gets fruity over about that temperature.

I noticed that if I use nottingham and S04, 62 degrees is the best temperature for them, while 68 degrees seems to be perfect for S05.

Does one ice bath usually keep the batch cool enough through fermentation (with room temps around 70-72)...or will I need to refresh the ice?
 
Thanks a lot for adding that, I'll have to read up on it - I think you're right about chlorine evaporating, I had assumed (oops) that it was the same for chloramine! Thankfully my city doesn't add chlorine or chloramine so I get to just use my tap water.

Boiling tap water will remove chloramines as well as chlorine, though the camden tablets are simpler to use. I think 15 minutes is sufficient. Water must be boiled before adding to mash (i.e., the chloramines won't be removed by boiling the wort).

I see it isn't an issue for you, but I'm dropping this here for others that were wondering.
 
Something that just hit me that I should clear up. Austin says to get the wort down to 80, move to primary fermenter, and then top off water and pitch the yeast. So I bet I am actually pitching at a temp much lower than 80 when you actually top off with cold water. I've never measured the exact temp but will this next time around to see how far the temp drops when the cold water is added.

Where are you getting your top-off water? Tap water in Austin is 85F right now, and room temp is maybe 75F if you like your AC on all day. Are you chilling your top-off water? If not, your wort is still too warm when you pitch.

Edit: just realized you aren't in Austin. Never mind. :)
 
Does one ice bath usually keep the batch cool enough through fermentation (with room temps around 70-72)...or will I need to refresh the ice?

Google swamp cooler. Basically, evaporative cooling will keep your fermenter 1-15F lower than the surrounding air.
 
Boiling tap water will remove chloramines as well as chlorine, though the camden tablets are simpler to use. I think 15 minutes is sufficient. Water must be boiled before adding to mash (i.e., the chloramines won't be removed by boiling the wort).

I see it isn't an issue for you, but I'm dropping this here for others that were wondering.

Chloramines will boil off, eventually, but you'd run out of water first! I think it's something like hours, not minutes, to boil off chloramine. I have read some sources that say it can be boiled off more readily, but sources I trust say not.
 
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