Acrid taste to beer

[BeginnerBebeBrewer]

Hi Everyone,

I'm having an issue. I have brewed two IPAs, a porter and a saison. The two IPAs I used Safeway bought water and they turned out wonderful. However, with the porter I used brita filtered water (the tap water in my area is hard) and Arrowhead spring water for the saison.

For both the saison and the porter I have obtained the same smelling and tasting beer. Its hard to put a definitive description on the smell and taste other than it is acrid, harsh and when tasted has a very long and lingering off taste. I checked the off-taste websites and I cannot really match any of the common off-tastes with whats happened to my two brews. I brewed the IPAs in between the porter and saison and followed the same sterilization procedure for all four beers. My beer does not appear to contain any bacterial contamination.

Therefore my question is - could the water have such a dramatic effect on the beer and result in both beers developing this profile. I've left the porter for 3 months now and unfortunately the taste has not improved.

I plan on going back to the water source I tried for the IPA but it would be great to get any ideas/suggestions and opinions of other people who may have had this experience.

Thanks everyone

 

[ElJefeBrews]

What kind of equipment are you brewing with? What kind of pots?

 

[microbusbrewery]

Water chemistry can definitely make a pretty big impact. This might help...I associate acrid with highly roasted malts, kind of a burnt character. To me it's much more sharp than bitterness associated with hops. Another suggestion, if you have a LHBS, take a bottle in and have them try it. They might be able to help you troubleshoot it. That's also a really good reason for joining a homebrew club.

 

[ElJefeBrews]

What kind of equipment are you brewing with? What kind of pots?

The reason I ask is because I was using a cheap pot for a while and it was leaching something into the beers and ruining them, and acrid is how I would describe that flavor. As soon as I figured out that that's what was happening I invested in some good pots and now my beers are coming out great.

 

[theowlman16]

All four brew ingredients from the same company? It sounds like something changed after those first two...could just be old grain. Why not just go back to the Safeway water if that's what you suspect?

 

[BeginnerBebeBrewer]

I spoke to the guy at the LHBS....he tasted my beer and informed me that the taste was the result of low quality liquid malt that was oxidized. He suggested to avoid liquid malt extract due to common low quality material. I noticed looking through my recipes that my two successful IPAs were solely powdered malt extract, so it appears that this is my main issue.

 

[Ashevillain]

Oxidized extract could be the issue, but when brewing extract the water can definitely be causing that taste. Extract already contains the full mineral profile of the water that was used to originally create it. Adding anything but reverse osmosis or distilled will be adding more minerals, if your water happens to be high in minerals and your doubling up on your overall mineral profile, it will definitely add a harsh, possibly saline bitterness. But if the tap water in your area is relatively devoid of minerals then it should not be a big issue.