Recovering from a Chlorine mistake - help please

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JSBULL

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I pulled a bonehead move 2+ weeks ago. I brewed 15 gallons of kettle soured berliner with untreated tap water. Now there is a chlorine flavor that I'm trying to mask.

Factors that lead to this screw up:
  • Chlorine will typically boil off, but because it was a berliner, I didn't reach a full rolling boil.
  • The light mashbill and low OG really works to showcase the residual chlorine, unfortunately.
  • I simply forgot to include campden tablets.
  • Our city water isn't typically highly chlorinated, but with the high temps, they've really dosed it hard lately.
What I've done to-date:
  • I intended to fruit up a portion of it, so I decided to fruit it all to try to mask it. Watermelon seems to me like it has an almost chlorine edge to it, so I thought it would be a good mask.
  • I added 1/4 of a watermelon and about a pound of pitted and split black cherries 4 days ago.
  • That didn't do enough, so last night, I added another 3/4 of a new watermelon.
What I'm wondering:
  1. If chlorine dissipates from water left out overnight, why would it not dissipate from beer? Is there a way to encourage that?
  2. I've read forum claims that campden tablets will not work post fermentation to remove or neutralize chlorine. Is this factual?
  3. Anyone have any other ideas?
If this doesn't work, it's going to be a tough pill to swallow pouring 15 gallons of berliner down the drain when it took 3 weeks and two brew days to make it. That's a costly lesson.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
I figure it should have dissipated. Once the water pressure drops the chlorine gas should escape with a bit of time

Is it really noticeable in the tap water?
 
When you mash with chlorinated water, it reacts with phenols in the malt to create chlorophenols, which no longer react the same. I'd say you are stuck with them and your only hope is to mask them.
 
When you mash with chlorinated water, it reacts with phenols in the malt to create chlorophenols, which no longer react the same. I'd say you are stuck with them and your only hope is to mask them.
Oh that's right. Chlorine and organics....

OP you think adding any hop oils would help mask it?
 
Oh that's right. Chlorine and organics....

OP you think adding any hop oils would help mask it?

Might, but it's a berliner, that's now a watermelon berliner, so that would be one funky beer. I might keg it and dry hop and see what happens. At some point I'll have to give up and stop throwing money at it. But, watermelons are cheap and I can grab some good hops to try.

Thanks for the suggestion.
 
When you mash with chlorinated water, it reacts with phenols in the malt to create chlorophenols, which no longer react the same. I'd say you are stuck with them and your only hope is to mask them.
I remember this now. Son of a gun, that's why it hasn't dissipated. Thank you for the reminder.
 
It's my policy to not put effort into "fixing" messed up beer. Just move on to the next batch.
I hear that stated a lot, but some of my best creations were screwing around with a bad beer.

This one was worth the effort because I had so much time invested in 15 gallons of it and my attempts to fix were inexpensive ($9 total in watermelons). Alas, I believe it'll be going down the drain. The flavor is mostly covered up, but the aftertaste is still there. My last try will be some lactic acid to drop the pH from 3.5 to 3.25 or so. Maybe the tart will cover the aftertaste.

Definitely a costly lesson.
 
The watermelon and an ounce of dry hops for 5 gallons mostly covered it up. Good beer tasters seem to pick up something off, but can't put their finger on it. I only kept 5 gallons for a few friends aren't that great at beer tasting and really like fruity sours. If they pick up an issue also, I'll dump this final 5 gallons. If not, then they can enjoy it. I just know that I can't. :no:
 
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