All of my beers are bad.

[GoeHaarden]

I skimmed this thread so I may have missed it, but are you controlling fermentation temps?

 

[GoeHaarden]

, buy a pH meter, even a cheap one is going to work better than guessing.

Using a calculator like BrunWater will get you closer than a cheap meter, and you don't even have to waste money on a meter that is unreliable...

 

[alexipa]

Bottled water can be a wide variety of things. Do you mean bottled DISTILLED water or bottled SPRING water? What did you add to it?

Also, buy a pH meter, even a cheap one is going to work better than guessing.

Great point, sorry for leaving out details. This is eldorado spring water - I linked the info somewhere else in this thread. I should have written down what I added to it... it was a mix the guy at the homebrew shop uses and I've forgotten what it was. I'll get this info next time!

My next purchases will be a pH meter and an RO filter I think.

 

[Sauls]

Great to see you come back! It’s unfortunate when you follow a thread for pages and the OP never comes back. Good luck on your quest and looking forward to more reports.

I’ve been playing with PH over the years and test my water every season change, and filter only using a charcoal filter from LoweDepot, then add salts.