Campden Tablets (Sulfites) and Brewing Water

[JawZziff]

ah yes, I see now. subbed anyway for further reference.

 

[stlblues5010]

It takes an incredibly small amount of chlorine or chloramine to impart detectable chlorophenol in beer...even a recently washed serving glass that is still wet with chlorinated water will instantly create chlorophenol. Yes, in a finished beer!

The one time it occurred was in the Portland OR airport at a local brewery's bar. They had just washed the glasses in the typical glassware dunkings and served the beers in those glasses. I complained and thought that the beer was bad. They had apparently had this happen before since they dumped that beer and served the same beer in a properly rinsed and dried glass and there was no problem. Happy me.

So is this saying that every bar/brewery that water rinses their glasses prior to serving a drink is ruining the beer?

I'm just assuming, but I'm guessing most of them are using straight tap water when they are using the water sprayer.

 

[kal]

So is this saying that every bar/brewery that water rinses their glasses prior to serving a drink is ruining the beer?

I'm just assuming, but I'm guessing most of them are using straight tap water when they are using the water sprayer.

They are - I have a glass rinser in my bar and all bars would hook up to a standard cold water feed. That's how they're meant to be used. I find it hard to believe that a glass rinsed with tap water will cause issues with chloramine.

My city uses 2 ppm of chloramine which is fairly standard I would presume. I do remove it from my brewing water using the potassium metabisulphite but then do rinse my glass before pouring and have never noticed any issues.

Kal

 

[mabrungard]

That was a warning that this defect can arise from contact with chlorine compounds. Obviously, the actual concentration in your glass is dependent upon the amount of residual water in your glass and the concentration of chlorine compounds in that water. The problem is most acute when the glasses came out of a chlorine-based cleaning solution. A rinse with the typical tap water may not have enough chlorine compounds in it to affect taste. But it might!

 

[ajdelange]

Way back in #54 I described an experiment in which beer was dosed with chlorine to the extent of 5 ppm and no chlorphenolics were detected even after allowing the beer to stand. I'm not saying there isn't a way to screw things up with improper rinsing but given that a glass rinsed with water tap water at 3 ppm chlorine/chloramine is going to introduce a level in beer subsequently introduced into that glass much much less than 3 ppm (30 ppb?) and that beer dosed to 5 ppm doesn't suffer detriment it is unlikely that beer served in a glass rinsed with tap water will.