Is My Beer Ruined?: A MWS horor story

[Rkoory]

So, this past Sunday I brewed a batch of my Dry hoped brown ale. I used my standard batch sparge protocol. More or less a typical brew day.

Later that afternoon I was treating myself to a glass of water, and noticed it tasted odd. I just chalked it up to residual soap in the glass, and went on with my day.

Monday evening when I returned home from work my wife informs me that as of Saturday afternoon our municipal water supplier was experiencing a malfunction which resulted in an excessive amount of chlorine being added to the water supply (gee I wonder why my water tasted odd).

So here is the rub, does using purified pool water (or excessively chlorinated water) harm your beer? I know some is expected with city water, and is dissipated with the boil.

The worst part, I had planned this batch being a contender for an up-coming home brew contest. My heart is now full of fear and trepidation. I’d hate to see good beer go down this way.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

If the chlorine went into your beer, then yes, it will harm your beer. If your municipal supplier uses chlorine and not chloramine, AND you boiled it or filtered it BEFORE any of it came into contact with your mash/wort, you should be okay. However, if they use chloramine, and you didn't filter or use a campden tablet, you're not going to be a happy camper.

 

[Wispering_Eye]

If it was just regular old chlorine, that taste/odor would have evaporated when you boiled you wort. If it was chloromine, that's a different story. That will not evaporate when boiled. Might want to make a call to your water supplier to see what product they use to "chlorinate" with.

 

[Homercidal]

+1 to each of the previous. You might consider having some campden tablets on hand to neutralize the chlorine/chloramine, or switch to using spring water or RO water.

1/4 of a campden tab will be effective for 5 gallons of brewing water.

 

[Rkoory]

What is the affect of the chlorine? You mention that it will adversly affect the wort itself.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Malric]

I believe it generates a medicinal flavor.

 

[zachattack]

It reacts with yeast to form chlorophenols, which give a plasticky or "Band-aid" aftertaste. Nothing you can do at this point but wait and see...

http://beer-geeking.blogspot.com/2011/05/water-chlorine-chloramine-and.html

 

[GotPushrods]

If it was just regular old chlorine, that taste/odor would have evaporated when you boiled you wort.

It reacts with yeast to form chlorophenols, which give a plasticky or "Band-aid" aftertaste. Nothing you can do at this point but wait and see...

http://beer-geeking.blogspot.com/2011/05/water-chlorine-chloramine-and.html

It sounds like you guys are suggesting that if you know your water system uses only hypochlorite (aka "chlorine") that you don't need to worry about it.

This is not true. Chlorophenols are produced in the mash as well. All hypochlorite and chloramine should be dealt with before any water touches your grain.

These nasties are perceptible to most pallates in the 10-30 ppb rage. That BILLION with a B. It doesn't take much to ruin a batch of beer.

It also doesn't take much effort to dose all your water with Campden. Just do it every time and worry about other stuff.

 

[Homercidal]

Yes, you must treat the water before you mash. Either by boiling (for Chlorine) or by using Campden Tablets (For either). Or skip the treated water altogether and buy some that is not treated. I purchase RO water from the grocery store for about $4 for 10 gallons.

I generally need special water because mine is not good for pretty much all brewing. Too much alkalinity. If your water is generally good for brewing, then Capmden tabs are a great investment. I add the campden tabs at about the same time I'm adding the Gypsum and/or Calcium Chloride

 

[Wispering_Eye]

It sounds like you guys are suggesting that if you know your water system uses only hypochlorite (aka "chlorine") that you don't need to worry about it.

This is not true. Chlorophenols are produced in the mash as well. All hypochlorite and chloramine should be dealt with before any water touches your grain.

These nasties are perceptible to most pallates in the 10-30 ppb rage. That BILLION with a B. It doesn't take much to ruin a batch of beer.

It also doesn't take much effort to dose all your water with Campden. Just do it every time and worry about other stuff.

I forgot to mention that I speak in semi-truths....similar to our gov't.:cross:


Yep, ppb is an incredibly low number, ergo it doesn't take much of it to create off flavors.
Thanks for the correction.

 

[Rkoory]

I need to understand water chemistry better. Till now I have not employed any water pre-treatment additives.

Other than the chlorine issues, are there any other benefits to using Camden tablets?

 

[Croyzen]

I filter the water with carbon to remove chlorine/sediment and off flavors and treat with approx 150mg of potassium metabisulfite per 7 gallons (approx pre-boil). The water is treated before the grain touches it.

I can't run the water without smelling chlorine out of the unfiltered tap. Did you drink the glass of water from an unfiltered source and not smell chlorine? After I filter and treat the water I've got my nose in the kettles while it's heating up sniffing around like a dog. I usually taste a sample of the water also.

If you are using untreated water from your tap, the quality of your beer will improve drastically once you deal with water.

 

[Croyzen]

I need to understand water chemistry better. Till now I have not employed any water pre-treatment additives.

Other than the chlorine issues, are there any other benefits to using Camden tablets?

Beer is mostly water! It's the main ingredient. Using potassium metabisulfite is really beneficial when it comes to removing chloramine from the water which hangs around longer and is more difficult to remove than chlorine. A good place to start is by checking your city's public water report to find out if chloramine is used. A free way to find out is to use the sniff test. Pour out a gallon of water and let it sit over night. If chlorine only is present it will evaporate off and you shouldn't smell it. If chloramine is present you'll probably still have that chlorine smell.

Once you filter the water you can go to Lowes (or many other places) and buy a drinking water test kit. You'll at least get some basic information such as pH of the water and how much chlorine/chloramine is in it post filtration. You can then step up your water game and send it off to Ward Labs for testing online and you'll get a complete report.

First priority is to get the chlorine (or its cousins) out of the brewing water. Even the water I use to rinse anything that comes in contact with the beer has the chlorine removed. The only time I use water that is not filtered is to clean equipment that I know will sit for a while thus evaporating off any residual chlorine. All city water is basically pool water.

Here is a good book that came out recently that deals with water. I like the book but don't care for a lot of the where water comes from type stuff. Once the book starts talking about how the brewing water interacts with the mash it begins to get a bit more interesting. The first couple of chapters will put you to sleep... or a deep coma.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381993/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Rkoory]

Follow up:


I have been drinking my biere de chlorine over the past week. Good news is, its palatable. bad new is you can defiantly taste the chlorine.

Its not a bad beer, might have been a pretty good beer, but live and learn.

Thanks all.

 

[Croyzen]

Yes you live and learn. I went on about chlorine in this post and I ended up getting burned by high alkalinity in my water. The problem surfaced when I brewed a couple lighter ales that had an off flavor that I've had help identifying as astringency. Water is challenging, once you think you've solved your water problem something else comes up! I think a test of water using Ward labs is probably best and can avoid headaches down the road. Once you have the report you can decide how to proceed.