Finally got rid of bad aftertaste

[Pluto035]

After many months I believe I finally nailed down the bad aftertaste I was getting in my beers. It was from the water I was using to sanitize my carboys and bottles. Just that tiny bit of tap water was giving my beers a nasty lingering aftertaste. Almost like a hops bitterness, but harsher and lingering on the back of your throat. On my most recent beer, a honey blonde ale, I started to use campden tablets in the tap water that I used to sanitize and it seems to have worked. I had previously tried going to distilled water, switching to san-star from one step cleaner, temp controlling with a Rubbermaid tub and ice, late-extract additions, batches with no specialty grains to make sure I wasn't getting tannins, going to larger boils, using a secondary and relaxing and having a homebrew. All good things, but nothing seemed to help. So now that I think I have this nailed down I'm gonna start another batch when I get back from vacation over Christmas. Hopefully this bad taste is gone for good. Just had to share this news. Thanks to everyone on this forum for helping me narrow this down!

 

[Hardleft]

Do you really think that that such a small amount of water could affect your beer that much? I had a similar taste in my first batch and it just aged out.

 

[Pluto035]

Well I heard some chemicals can be tasted in as little as ppb concentration so I'm guessing it's possible. Adding the campden tablets was really the only thing I changed.

 

[Hillbilly_Bill]

Reading about your problem reminds me of something I read in John Palmer's How to Brew. He says that many people pitch their yeast before the wort cools down enough and the result is a myriad of aftertastes... or something to that effect. He says that the cutoff point is 80*F... any warmer than that will present problems with aftertastes.
Just my 2 cents...
Bill

 

[SteveM]

The water is critical. That's why I use bottled spring water. There is nothing wrong with the water around here from a health standpoint, but it just doesn't taste very good. For those in the Philly area, I am in Delaware County - a separate water system from the city.

There are other solutions but I'm happy with mine.

 

[david_42]

And one of the chemical groups we can detect in ppb are chlorophenols. Campden does the trick.