punkicha
New Member
Hi everyone,
I live in Nottingham,UK and I thought that my water tastes fine. However after starting AG I found that whenever I try to brew a pale ale I can detect a specific aftertaste like an overly boiled water for tea, reminiscent of pipes....
This taste seems to be only detectable in boiled water, and not straight from the tap.
Here is my water report:
Ca 75mg/l (determined with Salifert kit)
Mg 15mg/l Na 31mg/l
SO4 95mg/l Cl- 42mg/l
HCO3 130mg/l as CaCO3 (determined with Salifert KH/ kit)
I have tried two experiments to determine the source of the weird taste. In the first one I just boiled 4l of water for an hour down to 2.3l, cooled it down, aerated it and had a taste. It had a lot of CaCO3 precipitate and that peculiar astringent taste on the top of the palate.
In the second experiment I used fresh tap water and CRS to lower the carbonates to 30mg/l CaCO3, boiled again, cooled, aerated. And...it had the freaking taste again
I tried adding some Calcium chloride and that did mask the taste a bit, but I think it is just the overwhelming taste of the chlorides masking, not so much as fixing the taste. Now when I brew a slightly darker beer or even better a stout I cannot detect the taste, but I believe this is because the richer malt character is covering the water.
Could this weird taste be due to iron from my pipes (report says Iron 11micrograms/l)? I would hate to invest in a RO system...is there any way to fix those Brita jars to filter water automatically without me replenishing 40l water 2l at a time all night?
I would appreciate any advice you could offer for this peculiar problem that keep me awake and prevents me from brewing pales.
I live in Nottingham,UK and I thought that my water tastes fine. However after starting AG I found that whenever I try to brew a pale ale I can detect a specific aftertaste like an overly boiled water for tea, reminiscent of pipes....
This taste seems to be only detectable in boiled water, and not straight from the tap.
Here is my water report:
Ca 75mg/l (determined with Salifert kit)
Mg 15mg/l Na 31mg/l
SO4 95mg/l Cl- 42mg/l
HCO3 130mg/l as CaCO3 (determined with Salifert KH/ kit)
I have tried two experiments to determine the source of the weird taste. In the first one I just boiled 4l of water for an hour down to 2.3l, cooled it down, aerated it and had a taste. It had a lot of CaCO3 precipitate and that peculiar astringent taste on the top of the palate.
In the second experiment I used fresh tap water and CRS to lower the carbonates to 30mg/l CaCO3, boiled again, cooled, aerated. And...it had the freaking taste again
I tried adding some Calcium chloride and that did mask the taste a bit, but I think it is just the overwhelming taste of the chlorides masking, not so much as fixing the taste. Now when I brew a slightly darker beer or even better a stout I cannot detect the taste, but I believe this is because the richer malt character is covering the water.
Could this weird taste be due to iron from my pipes (report says Iron 11micrograms/l)? I would hate to invest in a RO system...is there any way to fix those Brita jars to filter water automatically without me replenishing 40l water 2l at a time all night?
I would appreciate any advice you could offer for this peculiar problem that keep me awake and prevents me from brewing pales.