chalky taste?

[cnoyes]

I've made 4 extract kits now (3 from AHS, 1 Brewer's Best), and they all seem to come out with a kind of chalky taste. Could this just be that I'm not used to drinking beer that doesn't have the yeast filtered out?

 

[cnoyes]

BTW, I'm doing 1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary, 3 weeks bottled.

 

[Got Trub?]

Yeast doesn't taste chalky - more "yeasty", think bread.

What water are you using? Are you adding gypsum or anything else to the water?

 

[Thalon]

Chalk is Calcium Carbonate. Test the water you're using and check the CaCO3 reading in particular. I bet it's high.

 

[cnoyes]

How do I test for that? I can't seem to find anything at any homebrew supply sites.

I've been doing some reading and I'm thinking maybe it's "extract twang". I'm going to try to brew my next batch using partial mash system outlined in this article: Countertop Partial Mashing

 

[Thalon]

Aquarium supply stores will have cheap paper test strips you can use to get a general idea of whether the water is hard or not.

US government requires cities (or some other municipality) to send you a water quality report every year, usually arriving around June I think. Sometimes hardness readings will be there.

You can also take a sample of your water and send it in to a water testing company. A good one has been suggested on these forums but I can't think of the name... someone help me out...

 

[malkore]

call the aquarium stores. some are nice and will test your water for you, especially if you just want the hardness levels and not the full range that an aquarium should have.
save you a few bucks on a kit you'll use once, cuz your tap water won't really change much.

what brand was the malt in the kits? was it fresh?