can RO water still have chlorine or chloramines?

[raymarkson]

For my most recent brew, I wanted to try to use all RO water and build the appropriate water profile by adding back calcium-chloride, gypsum and Epsom. I used the water profile calculator on brewers friend to determine the needed quantities. The brew day went fine and I hit all of my numbers right on.

Two weeks later I pulled a gravity sample. After tasting the gravity sample, I was horrified to find that it had a band aid flavor. I have gotten this flavor in the past but, after reading a bit on it, I determined that it was from chlorine/ chloramines in my tap water so I started using campden tablets in the water that I used for brewing.

With this last batch, though, I did not use campden tablets because I assumed that there would not be any chlorine/ chloramine in RO water. Now I am wondering if that was the wrong assumption. Can there still be chloramines/ chlorine in RO water? Should I still use Campden tablets with RO water?

The RO water was from a Glacier water machine that is in the front of my local Publix grocery store, if that makes any difference. Also, I took a reading of the water with my TDS meter and it was reading at 10 ppm.

 

[snowveil]

Recipe? Yeast variety? What's your pitching rate and sanitation look like?

 

[jodell]

It shouldn't. Sounds like it could be from something else.

 

[raymarkson]

Recipe? Yeast variety? What's your pitching rate and sanitation look like?

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053:
Esimated FG: 1.011
Estimated Color: 8.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 37.6 IBUs
Mash temp: 152
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
13 lbs two-row
1 lb Munich
3 lbs Vienna
.5 lb Honey Malt
.25 acidulated malt
1 lb carapils
.7 lb Crystal Malt - 80L

1 oz Magnum[11.8 %] 60 min
1 oz Rakau [9.6 %] 10 min
1 oz Rakau [9.6 %] 5 min
1 oz Galaxy[15.6 %] 5 min
2 oz Rakau [9.6 %] 0 min
1.5 oz Galaxy[15.6 %] 0 min
1 oz Cascade [5.8 %] 0 min

Yeast was an sa-05 slurry from a previous batch of amber that turned out great. The amount of yeast cells in this slurry (according to Mr Malty) was around 400 billion.
I pitched the yeast around 68F
It did take almost 48 hours to show signs of fermentation, which did concern me and I realize that the problem could stem from this lag time.

I fermented this beer at an ambient temperature of 62 for about eight days. Then as the Krausen fell and fermentation appeared to be slowing down, I raised the temperature by 2 degrees a day until it was around 70. I typically do this because I’ve read that the higher temperature will help the yeast clean up at the end of fermentation.

As for cleaning and sanitation, I am pretty fastidious about this. I clean everything with oxyclean and sanitize with star-san. Nothing touches the beer unless I have drenched it in star-san first.

One final note that could be important- The gravity sample was 1.018, which is much higher than my anticipated FG of 1.011. I am assuming that it is still fermenting and I am not going to move it off of the yeast anytime soon. I plan on checking the gravity again in a couple of days.

Is there anything that I missed?

 

[Epos7]

Chlorine no, but chloramines possibly. It will depend on whether your municipality uses chloramines, and whether your RO filter has a chloramines stage.

 

[jodell]

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053:
Esimated FG: 1.011
Estimated Color: 8.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 37.6 IBUs
Mash temp: 152
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
13 lbs two-row
1 lb Munich
3 lbs Vienna
.5 lb Honey Malt
.25 acidulated malt
1 lb carapils
.7 lb Crystal Malt - 80L

1 oz Magnum[11.8 %] 60 min
1 oz Rakau [9.6 %] 10 min
1 oz Rakau [9.6 %] 5 min
1 oz Galaxy[15.6 %] 5 min
2 oz Rakau [9.6 %] 0 min
1.5 oz Galaxy[15.6 %] 0 min
1 oz Cascade [5.8 %] 0 min

Yeast was an sa-05 slurry from a previous batch of amber that turned out great. The amount of yeast cells in this slurry (according to Mr Malty) was around 400 billion.
I pitched the yeast around 68F
It did take almost 48 hours to show signs of fermentation, which did concern me and I realize that the problem could stem from this lag time.

I fermented this beer at an ambient temperature of 62 for about eight days. Then as the Krausen fell and fermentation appeared to be slowing down, I raised the temperature by 2 degrees a day until it was around 70. I typically do this because I’ve read that the higher temperature will help the yeast clean up at the end of fermentation.

As for cleaning and sanitation, I am pretty fastidious about this. I clean everything with oxyclean and sanitize with star-san. Nothing touches the beer unless I have drenched it in star-san first.

One final note that could be important- The gravity sample was 1.018, which is much higher than my anticipated FG of 1.011. I am assuming that it is still fermenting and I am not going to move it off of the yeast anytime soon. I plan on checking the gravity again in a couple of days.

Is there anything that I missed?

Personally I wouldn't rule it as having bandaid taste until it's carbed and ready, at least not till it's done with fermentation.
I brewed a hefeweizen a few weeks ago, and it tasted so green and sour, until it carbed and then had an excellent clove tone.
It's still pretty young, just give it some time

 

[raymarkson]

Personally I wouldn't rule it as having bandaid taste until it's carbed and ready, at least not till it's done with fermentation.
I brewed a hefeweizen a few weeks ago, and it tasted so green and sour, until it carbed and then had an excellent clove tone.
It's still pretty young, just give it some time

I hear you, jodell. Since the beer has not reached FG, I should not assume that this flavor will be in the final beer. I suppose that yeast can make all kinds of crazy flavors while they're still fermenting. Hopefully they will clean it up. I will certainly wait and see what happens.

Thanks!

 

[jodell]

I hear you, jodell. Since the beer has not reached FG, I should not assume that this flavor will be in the final beer. I suppose that yeast can make all kinds of crazy flavors while they're still fermenting. Hopefully they will clean it up. I will certainly wait and see what happens.

Thanks!

Keep us posted

 

[BigEd]

For my most recent brew, I wanted to try to use all RO water and build the appropriate water profile by adding back calcium-chloride, gypsum and Epsom. I used the water profile calculator on brewers friend to determine the needed quantities. The brew day went fine and I hit all of my numbers right on.

Two weeks later I pulled a gravity sample. After tasting the gravity sample, I was horrified to find that it had a band aid flavor. I have gotten this flavor in the past but, after reading a bit on it, I determined that it was from chlorine/ chloramines in my tap water so I started using campden tablets in the water that I used for brewing.

With this last batch, though, I did not use campden tablets because I assumed that there would not be any chlorine/ chloramine in RO water. Now I am wondering if that was the wrong assumption. Can there still be chloramines/ chlorine in RO water? Should I still use Campden tablets with RO water?

The RO water was from a Glacier water machine that is in the front of my local Publix grocery store, if that makes any difference. Also, I took a reading of the water with my TDS meter and it was reading at 10 ppm.

The cause of phenols in beer (the Band-Aid smell/flavor) is usually going to be an infection or a fermentation temperature outside the yeast's preferred range.

 

[day_trippr]

Chlorine/chloramines are long associated with band-aid notes.
I ran into it myself as a novice brewer...

Cheers!

 

[JimEb]

RO water will not have chlorine/chloramines in it. Chlorine will destroy an RO membrane so the first step in making RO is filtering the water through carbon to remove any chlorine/chloramines.

 

[Spartan1979]

Are you checking your RO water with a TDS meter to make sure it's working?

 

[Homercidal]

RO water will not have chlorine/chloramines in it. Chlorine will destroy an RO membrane so the first step in making RO is filtering the water through carbon to remove any chlorine/chloramines.

It entirely possible that they don't maintain their RO system as well as they should. For this reason I always add some campden tablet to my brewing water.

 

[CUrchin]

I agree with Homercidal- Why not just throw a bit of campden tablet in next brew. For the cost of something like $0.02, you will eliminate a variable and be able to debug from there.