I'm done with brewing. All my beers taste like ****

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dragonbreath11

dragonbreath11

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I've been brewing for 3 years now and all my beers have this homebrew taste that is prevalent in all my beers no matter what beers I brew. I started using a charcoal filter and campden tablets. While this has alleviated the problem somewhat, there is still this underlying aftertaste that makes all my beers subpar at best. While I don't have a temp control fridge, I've tried the swamp cooler, pitched cool (62f for ales), pitched with 3/4 gallon starters for small beers and even had a lager outside in the winter ferment in the mid to high 40s (it was barely drinkable). I've tried the Belgians thinking it was a temp issue and it still came out bad. I've tried primaries, secondaries, long conditioning times, short conditioning times, crash cooling, you name it. My boils are vigorous, I cool quickly, pitch as soon as temps are ok. I nail down all my calculations using Beersmith and brew all-grain with fresh malt and hops. The only thing I don't mess with is mineral additions to the mash water though I know this can't be an issue because I've tried brewing beers that call for hard water and soft water. I'm at the end of my rope. If I had to guess I'd say it's a water issue because the water out of my tap is not very good and smells like a swimming pool coming out. I'd like to purchase an RO system but don't know which one. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
 
Have you used bottled water? I have had to do that a few places i have lived. At least that will take the water out of the equation.
 
Where I live you cannot buy RO water anywhere that I know of. It's hard to justify spending an extra $10+ on bottled water everytime I brew. That totally kills any homebrew economic advantage besides even If I decide to quit brewing the tap water in my area is so bad I would probably end up getting an RO system anyhow. We had a lot of rain here lately and I managed to collect a lot of rainwater which I hear is close to RO water. I'll be brewing Monday and see if that doesn't make a difference. I'm almost certain it will.
 
That stinks. I had questionable water once. I bought enough drinking water in 2.5 gallon jugs to make 5 gallon batches. It didn't cost very much....$5 or $6.

You could call a friend with better water and fill up some jugs. If your beer tastes better at least you'd have the piece of mind .
 
None of the stores in the area have a vending machine like "fill your own bottle" RO system? That's where I get my water for brewing. I pay $0.35 a gallon and fill up 18 gal at a time which costs me $6.3. Sometimes that's two brews worth for me or one for a high gravity or 10gal batch. At another house I will drop the coin for my own RO system but I can stand spending my left over change on RO water from time to time.
 
also, look for a restaurant supply store.. maybe a smart and final.
they will carry spring water and distilled water in gallon jugs at a discount price.
You can get it by the case as well.

store across the street from me has 2 R/O water machines. 25 cents a gallon. :)
 
before I had RO water I would get 2 5gal water cooler jugs from Walmart, and use to brew. My water sucks and is possible magnetic. Occasionally I would even ferment in the jugs also.
 
dragonbreath11 said:
Where I live you cannot buy RO water anywhere that I know of. It's hard to justify spending an extra $10+ on bottled water everytime I brew. That totally kills any homebrew economic advantage besides even If I decide to quit brewing the tap water in my area is so bad I would probably end up getting an RO system anyhow. We had a lot of rain here lately and I managed to collect a lot of rainwater which I hear is close to RO water. I'll be brewing Monday and see if that doesn't make a difference. I'm almost certain it will.
Click to expand...

I just called Home Depot in Burbank and they sell 5-gallon bottles of Sparkletts RO water for $6.95
 
dragonbreath11 said:
Where I live you cannot buy RO water anywhere that I know of. It's hard to justify spending an extra $10+ on bottled water everytime I brew. That totally kills any homebrew economic advantage
Click to expand...

Someone here said once that homebrewing to get cheap beer is like buying a boat to get cheap fish.
 
... or just try getting gallons of spring water at the store. RO's nice, but not really necessary; for a while, I was buying seven one-gallon jugs of water for each brew session. Since it sounds you're doing AG, I'd just try spring water rather than RO (RO's going to require adding back minerals, another complication you don't need right now).

But, if the water tastes like ****, that's probably the issue. Spend a couple bucks on gallons of water, brew one more time, and see if there's any improvement. If so, then think about getting an RO system. Invest the $7 or $8 once to identify the problem.
 
RO systems are reasonably cheap in my opinion. Although I don't think RO is really required. I used to have an RO system from my previous reef aquarium hobby, but now I just use a 3 stage carbon filter system instead. I got all of my stuff from here: www.thefilterguys.biz
 
I get the gallons of drinking or spring water at wally world to brew with. Costs me under 5 bucks for enough water for my whole brew session (takes about 7 gallons with boil off and all). If you have chlorine or cloramines in your water, nothing else you do in your brewing process will make your beer tastes better until you address them first.
 
dragonbreath11 said:
It's hard to justify spending an extra $10+ on bottled water everytime I brew. That totally kills any homebrew economic advantage
Click to expand...

Just buy some bottled water at the store and try it for gawds sake. You only have to do it once to test the theory. After this ...
I started using a charcoal filter and campden tablets. While this has alleviated the problem somewhat, there is still this underlying aftertaste that makes all my beers subpar at best. While I don't have a temp control fridge, I've tried the swamp cooler, pitched cool (62f for ales), pitched with 3/4 gallon starters for small beers and even had a lager outside in the winter ferment in the mid to high 40s (it was barely drinkable). I've tried the Belgians thinking it was a temp issue and it still came out bad. I've tried primaries, secondaries, long conditioning times, short conditioning times, crash cooling, you name it. My boils are vigorous, I cool quickly, pitch as soon as temps are ok. I nail down all my calculations using Beersmith and brew all-grain with fresh malt and hops.
Click to expand...
... and you balk at buying water?
 
ChshreCat said:
Someone here said once that homebrewing to get cheap beer is like buying a boat to get cheap fish.
Click to expand...

"Homebrewing to save money on beer is like buying a boat to save money on fish." :mug:

Most of what's in your beer is, yep you guessed, water. If you use crappy SoCal water, you're going to end up with crappy beer.
 
Well like I said I'll try the rainwater. Compared to the tapwater, the rainwater albeit soft, tastes quite good. If not I'll try the springwater.
 
I wouldn't go with rainwater. It's not as pure as you think. Lots of crap (sometimes literally) in rainwater.
 
+1 on the grocery store water vending machines. I KNOW they have them in Burbank! They are everywhere. .25 cents a gallon. I get 10 gallons and blend it with my tap water for 11 gallon batches.
 
Also, rain is formed around particulate in the air such as dust, salt etc. So, whatever the rain formed itself around is now in your beer water. It can be filtered but so can tap water.
 
There is absolutely no way I would use LA rainwater. I'm sure that light purple haze that hangs over the LA basin can't make good beer.
 
LA Rainwater ? Sorry man but it's as if you are wanting this to fail.

Get. Spring. Water. From. The. Store.
 
Definitely get the spring water, if only for one brew. It's less than $10 to see if your water really is the problem with the beers. If nothing else, fill up some water from a friend's house that is better quality.
 
burbank Ca you say. i'm willing to bet that EVERY Vons, Albertsons, Stater Bros, ETC has one of those fill your own water RO machines outside.

that being said RO will require adding back into to get the water profile you desire, or just try some spring water.

-=Jason=-
 
]"Homebrewing to save money on beer is like buying a boat to save money on fish."

Still cheaper than the over priced beer down here. Even though I have always been a fan of ale it was nice in Czech were I was paying 2 dollars for half liters of some good lager.
 
I think an extra $10 dollars a batch for water is worth it. THink of it this way. Would you rather spend 20-40 on batch of beer that you don't want to drink (thus wasting that money) or an extra 10 and get something delicious. And if you're brewing to save money, you should have stopped a long time ago.
 
dragonbreath11 said:
Well I did a side by side with the tap water and the rainwater and the rainwater clearly tastes good.
Click to expand...

IMO using rainwater is not a good idea at all and may be downright hazardous. Much depends on how the rainwater is collected and/or treated. Runoff from a shingled roof can leach nasty stuff from a shingled roof and as already mentioned, rainwater isn't typically all that pure after forming in and falling through a polluted atmosphere. I came across the roof runoff problem when looking into using collected rainwater for gardening.

I get by with an extruded solid carbon block filter. I'm fortunate that my water is pretty good right out of the tap. The carbon filter is mostly to remove possible traces of chlorine and whatever else it can trap. I do plan to spring for a small RO system very soon. I should be able to blend the RO & filtered tap water to manufacture what I need.
 
I have several rain barrels, but won't even use the water in the garden. Only goes for watering ornamentals.
 
What about having your water tested an adding minerals as needed. If you use RO water you will need to play around with the chemistry anyways.
 
BWN said:
What about having your water tested an adding minerals as needed. If you use RO water you will need to play around with the chemistry anyways.
Click to expand...

Can you make good beer using RO water without mineral additions.?
 
Not if you're doing AG. However, mineral additions are pretty straightforward when starting from the blank slate of RO water.
 

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