Water ph

[MoshinJoshN]

I am still pretty new to home brewing but I have made a couple of brews and they both had an off taste to them. I took it to my home brew shop and they said it could be the water. I am using bottled drinking water now and my question is this: do I still need to add gypsum to my water to lower the ph if I am using bottled water? Thanks for your help.

 

[Jbt]

Depends!! What kind your using, what your making and how you making it.

 

[BigEd]

I am still pretty new to home brewing but I have made a couple of brews and they both had an off taste to them. I took it to my home brew shop and they said it could be the water. I am using bottled drinking water now and my question is this: do I still need to add gypsum to my water to lower the ph if I am using bottled water? Thanks for your help.

If you are using bottled water and assuming you are an extract brewer then it is not the cause of the off taste.

What is the off taste? Did your LHBS guy taste your beer? The most common would be phenolic or odd esters and the most common causes are lack of proper cleaning/sanitation or poor temperature control during fermentation.

Gypsum isn't to lower the pH of your water it's to lower the pH of the mash, which if you are extract brewing is a moot point. Some gypsum may be added to extract brews for the sulphate content to emphasize hop presence in certain styles.

 

[diS]

How the guy knew that is water and pH?
There could be too many factors that caused off flavors (pitching rate, fermentation temperature...)

If you are interested how water affects beer this is good article to start:
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge

Also you can use one of pH calculators to predict your pH:
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/home/files
http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/

 

[TopherM]

Like the other posters stated, there are several more plausable reasons your beer had off flavors other than PH.

PH really only plays a big factor in the flavor profile in the mash when it comes to tannin extraction and alkalinity in some styles, to a lesser part.

Since you are an extract brewer, none of that really applies to you. You aren't going to get any significant off flavors using any typical water source as long as it isn't highly chlorinated.

Worry more about sanitation, hitting temps on brewing day, proper OG, temp control in fermentation, and proper conditioning/carbing time.

 

[J187]

Describe the off flavor - even if you don't think you can do it in "beer" terms, what does it taste like to you?

 

[TopherM]

Another FYI, I don't know about your local homebrew shop, but lots of them, including mine, are really WINEMAKING shops that also sell homebrewing stuff. The employees at my LHBS know the basics of beer brewing, but I hear them giving out bad or flat wrong beer brewing advise all the time.

For every one time I've spoken up when I heard them giving a poor newbie bad advise, I've held my tongue at least 50 times so I'm allowed to come back.

It's not really their fault, they are winemakers. Everything they know about beer is ancedoctal, I don't think they've ever brewed themselves.

Just a heads up to take their advise with a grain of salt if your shop seems more like winemakers than brewers.

 

[cooper]

Agreed Topher! The guys at my LHBS are winemakers too and might do the occasional extract batch but they really dont have the experience to give out the best advice about stuff like PH and water adjustments.

 

[J187]

Another FYI, I don't know about your local homebrew shop, but lots of them, including mine, are really WINEMAKING shops that also sell homebrewing stuff. The employees at my LHBS know the basics of beer brewing, but I hear them giving out bad or flat wrong beer brewing advise all the time.

For every one time I've spoken up when I heard them giving a poor newbie bad advise, I've held my tongue at least 50 times so I'm allowed to come back.

It's not really their fault, they are winemakers. Everything they know about beer is ancedoctal, I don't think they've ever brewed themselves.

Just a heads up to take their advise with a grain of salt if your shop seems more like winemakers than brewers.

I agree with this, and I'll add, just because they own a shop doesn't mean they are always right about brewing or have the best advice. The gym I used to go was own by a completely out of shape guy, and I have a friend who owns a barber shop who doesn't cut hair - he just wanted a turn-key business and this one was cheap when he found it for sale.

That's the beauty of this place. You can throw something out there and get a variety of opinions from which you can formulate your own.

 

[metanoia]

That's crazy to hear about some home brew shops. I consider myself blessed to live five minutes away from the homebrewing.org B&M store, where they even go as far as to make their own extracts fresh in store. Can't wait to head down there on Saturday for a long day of brewing demos.

 

[TopherM]

make their own extracts fresh in store

They actually boil/reduce down extract from grain? I've never heard of that before.

My LHBS packages their own extract from giant fresh wholesale barrels, but they don't actually make it.

 

[metanoia]

They actually boil/reduce down extract from grain? I've never heard of that before.

My LHBS packages their own extract from giant fresh wholesale barrels, but they don't actually make it.

That's what my wife has told me from the one time she has stopped in. I'll have to ask on Saturday to confirm.