I moved house, now my great tasting homebrew isn't so great anymore

[greebo]

I had a similar situation. Moved in 2019 from one house to another and not nearly as far as you. Brews were good at my first house, never even felt the need to have anything tested.

After I moved, I found that I could make ok lager beers but anything at all with any amount of hops was not tasting right. After a few bad brews I had my water tested by Ward Labs.

I never had the water tested at my other house so I don’t know what was in it or how it relates. The water for this house came back with a whole lot of chloride and very low sulfate. Something like 85 for chloride and 15 for sulfate (5 on Wards report, so 15 is after multiplying by 3 like it tells you to do.) So basically about 5.5:1 Chloride to Sulfate. I had the water tested in March 2020 and again in June of this year as a sanity check. Both results are very similar.

This is where I started down the water chemistry rabbit hole. But the short of it is that chloride to sulfate balance is important, sulfate affects our perception, and I’m finding I have to add gypsum to almost everything I brew. For some beers I am diluting with distilled water to reduce chloride.

Cheers, I'm guessing I'll be going down this rabbit hole now too.

 

[greebo]

Hi @greebo

What part of NZ are you in? Are you on mains water?
Can pm me if you are trying to keep your location secret!
I'm just outside Wellington.

Would be useful to see your Portland water report as well so that you could build back to that if you wanted to.
The Gladfield malts and Malteurop locally produced are good malts.

Lots of Cows sounds Waikato.

North Canterbury, Rangiora! I am on mains water, yes.
Probably not as many cows as Waikato, but you can still see the rivers are suffering from it.

For the Portland water, I used this awesome thread Water chemistry for Portland, OR water made easy.
and 2022 Drinking Water Quality Report.

Unfortunately the council's water report in Rangiora is pretty limited.

I am using Gladfield malt, and it is amazing. I took a trip down there to get some directly from them, it was worth the hour drive or so.

I assume you treated the water to get rid of the Chlorine prior to brewing.

Yes, using campden tablets.

 

[DuncB]

@greebo
Canterbury should be providing something like Auckland do.
https://wslpwstoreprd.blob.core.win...ons/watercare_waterquality_report_2020_21.pdf
Wellington produces a more limited report but does have the essentials.
I have emailed canterbury water to see if they can provide the info ( I think they are meant to).
Let's see what comes back. The water here in Wellington is really neutral so I do always add salts to my brew water except when making a lager.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

Water is about 90% or more of any beer and it is the most over looked ingredient. If nothing else, get a charcoal filter and some 5.2 ph buffer. I brewed with that for years and made excellent beers. I how have an RO system and build the water profile I want. The best brewer I've ever known when asked how he brewed such wonderful beer so consistently said "It's in the water stupid". That was good advice

 

[DuncB]

Canterbury are looking at my request, re rangiora water details.

 

[greebo]

Canterbury are looking at my request, re rangiora water details.

Thanks for helping with this -- I contacted the council here, I was able to get this data so far:
Chloride: 5.97 – 7.43
Sulfate/Sulphate: 1.82 – 1.97

For reference, Portland OR is:
Chloride: 2.6 – 3.6
Sulfate/Sulphate: 0.35 – 0.43

 

[greebo]

Water is about 90% or more of any beer and it is the most over looked ingredient. If nothing else, get a charcoal filter and some 5.2 ph buffer. I brewed with that for years and made excellent beers. I how have an RO system and build the water profile I want. The best brewer I've ever known when asked how he brewed such wonderful beer so consistently said "It's in the water stupid". That was good advice

Thanks, if it turns out being the water, which is definitely seeming like the consensus, I will hopefully be brewing better beer by the end of this!

 

[DuncB]

Thanks for helping with this -- I contacted the council here, I was able to get this data so far:
Chloride: 5.97 – 7.43
Sulfate/Sulphate: 1.82 – 1.97

For reference, Portland OR is:
Chloride: 2.6 – 3.6
Sulfate/Sulphate: 0.35 – 0.43

I think they should be able to provide more info than that. Interestingly Wellington has a fairly basic report but all the bits I'm interested in for brewing except Sodium.

I suppose on the info you've got so far it's what they are not telling you that could be the issue.

One other thing is that I have noticed a difference between NZ grown hops and their US equivalent ie NZ cascade is not the same as US cascade. Same with NZ Goldings.

 

[DuncB]

Canterbury got back to me and said contact your local council waimakariki.

Found this on their website, a bit more info than they had provided you so far.

https://www.waimakariri.govt.nz/services/water-services/water-supply/drinking-water-testing

 

[CharlaineC]

Waimakariri water is off best I used bottled or distilled. or mix bottled with the local water. I had this issue for a long time till I got it down. If you can drop a well tat solved my issue after a while