I've recently moved to the Seattle area. Prior to moving I'd made 50+ batches and had honed my process to a point where I was very happy with the results. This process used an RO system as Edmonton water was somewhat hard and alkaline and I wanted to remove that variable from my process. I didn't bother with one in Seattle because it's "great brewing water".
I followed my usual BIAB process, this time I added a small amount of campden to deal with the chloramine, and adjusted the water to my desired mineral profile and mash pH with 2 mL lactic acid. I pitched a funny looking starter (this time 1007 for the first time). It fermented out fine, but the beer ended up with this very unpleasant bitter taste. It's most certainly not hops because it had about 20 IBUs with a total of 1 oz combined Centennial / Cascade. I attributed this to the poor flocculant nature of 1007 and "yeast bite".
I tasted the starter, it also had that bitterness. I've since made 3 other batches, two with 1098 and one with 3068. I just went and tasted all the starters, and every single one appear to have this lingering bitter / tart taste! It's not as strong in the subsequent beers but it is there. Let me be clear this isn't like a hop bitterness. It's an unpleasant but not overly powerful chalky-like bitterness that lingers on the sides of the tongue. What the heck gives here? It'd be a shame to have to go out and buy an RO system here but that's what the next step is so I can just be done with this issue.
None of my Edmonton tap water starters ever tasted like this. Anyone have any ideas? Here's the Seattle water report: http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SPU/Services/Water/12-2018 Quarterly Surface Water Analysis-pub-No_VOCs_Annual Webpage Report.pdf
Edit: I just had a thought after reading a post from mabrunguard. The Ca ppm of the tap water is incredibly low at 9 ppm max. This would explain why the starters taste awful, and possibly why the beer did too. The NEIPA which I mineralled up (obvs) doesn't appear to have this bitter taste relative to the others. Thoughts?
I followed my usual BIAB process, this time I added a small amount of campden to deal with the chloramine, and adjusted the water to my desired mineral profile and mash pH with 2 mL lactic acid. I pitched a funny looking starter (this time 1007 for the first time). It fermented out fine, but the beer ended up with this very unpleasant bitter taste. It's most certainly not hops because it had about 20 IBUs with a total of 1 oz combined Centennial / Cascade. I attributed this to the poor flocculant nature of 1007 and "yeast bite".
I tasted the starter, it also had that bitterness. I've since made 3 other batches, two with 1098 and one with 3068. I just went and tasted all the starters, and every single one appear to have this lingering bitter / tart taste! It's not as strong in the subsequent beers but it is there. Let me be clear this isn't like a hop bitterness. It's an unpleasant but not overly powerful chalky-like bitterness that lingers on the sides of the tongue. What the heck gives here? It'd be a shame to have to go out and buy an RO system here but that's what the next step is so I can just be done with this issue.
None of my Edmonton tap water starters ever tasted like this. Anyone have any ideas? Here's the Seattle water report: http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SPU/Services/Water/12-2018 Quarterly Surface Water Analysis-pub-No_VOCs_Annual Webpage Report.pdf
Edit: I just had a thought after reading a post from mabrunguard. The Ca ppm of the tap water is incredibly low at 9 ppm max. This would explain why the starters taste awful, and possibly why the beer did too. The NEIPA which I mineralled up (obvs) doesn't appear to have this bitter taste relative to the others. Thoughts?
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