Water Profile Help..

[marmonduke]

Okay, a little history..I've had some issues with some beer lately and think chlorine/chlorimine is what's causing my rubbery off flavors of some light AG recipes been trying lately but I'm new and overwhelmed by all the reading, searching, calculators, etc. I'm trying to learn too much all at once I think which I usually do with new hobbies.

I started just using TAP after reading about mash PH and all but have had some rubbery flavor of wheat beer done reciently which had significantly lightened with 2 weeks in keg. setting up situation:

I have RO with Dow filmtech (98-99% reject rate) and have relatively decent water if it weren't for the slight cholorine taste lately (maybe because summer?) I have been thinking about starting with clean slate and making additions and using it instead of tap water.

Recipe:
Light wheat beer (boulevard wheat type)

5.5 Gallon
6lbs Pale Malt 2-row
3lbs white wheat
simco/magnum hops (very light use)
US-05

36-quart cooler mash tun/braid/SS ballvalve
154 F mash 60 min
No Garden hose/bleach
Use Starsan and Oxyclean

3 week primary then kegged force carbed


Now this is where I'm confused. I have a link to municipal water report which I hear is usually not very accurate but I figure it would be a good point to use figuring I'd like a simple RO water build up so here it is:

http://www.gardnerkansas.gov/images/uploads/Water/2010 report for 2009.PDF



So, if someone kind enough to lead me in the right direction with some basic additions until I can wrap my head around all this water stuff that would be awesome. If you were using 100% of my RO water, what would you add given my water report and RO system?

thanks in advance and I know there may not be only one simple answer to my problem but one more thing I can cross off my list.

 

[Vance71975]

Okay, a little history..I've had some issues with some beer lately and think chlorine/chlorimine is what's causing my rubbery off flavors of some light AG recipes been trying lately but I'm new and overwhelmed by all the reading, searching, calculators, etc. I'm trying to learn too much all at once I think which I usually do with new hobbies.

I started just using TAP after reading about mash PH and all but have had some rubbery flavor of wheat beer done reciently which had significantly lightened with 2 weeks in keg. setting up situation:

I have RO with Dow filmtech (98-99% reject rate) and have relatively decent water if it weren't for the slight cholorine taste lately (maybe because summer?) I have been thinking about starting with clean slate and making additions and using it instead of tap water.

Recipe:
Light wheat beer (boulevard wheat type)

5.5 Gallon
6lbs Pale Malt 2-row
3lbs white wheat
simco/magnum hops (very light use)
US-05

36-quart cooler mash tun/braid/SS ballvalve
154 F mash 60 min
No Garden hose/bleach
Use Starsan and Oxyclean

3 week primary then kegged force carbed


Now this is where I'm confused. I have a link to municipal water report which I hear is usually not very accurate but I figure it would be a good point to use figuring I'd like a simple RO water build up so here it is:

http://www.gardnerkansas.gov/images/uploads/Water/2010 report for 2009.PDF



So, if someone kind enough to lead me in the right direction with some basic additions until I can wrap my head around all this water stuff that would be awesome. If you were using 100% of my RO water, what would you add given my water report and RO system?

thanks in advance and I know there may not be only one simple answer to my problem but one more thing I can cross off my list.

Ok Ill give you the simple version, Straight RO does not remove chlorine/chlorimine to the best of my knowledge you need a Carbon filter for that or need to Pre Boil For chlorine, but boiling will not remove chlorimine due to its more stable nature.

What you can do is buy 7 gallons of Bottled Drinking water and add a product like Burtons Salt mix in a Low amount just to add minerals.

 

[ajdelange]

Your water, as is, is pretty decent for brewing provided the chloramine is removed. It can be removed by standing (for a very long time i.e. 10 days), boiling (for several hours) and, much more practically, by addition of 1 Campden tablet to each 20 gallons being treated.

An RO system will remove most of the other ions in the water but the chloramine must be removed first because it will poison the membrane. Many systems have a carbon filter for this purpose but you need to be sure there is no punch-through i.e. that the carbon is doing its job in getting the chloramine out (unless you don't care that much about the cost of a new membrane cartridge). I'm not sure whether you are saying that your tap water has a chlorine taste or your RO water. If it is the latter the GAC is exhausted and needs to be replaced before the membrane is damaged.

Once you have RO water you can, of course, do anything you want. You can go to elaborate spreadsheets that will purport to tell you what to add to emulate the water of any of several famous brewing centers. I don't wonder that people approaching water treatment for the first time get bewildered. For this reason I have a Primer in the stickies section of this topic. I invite you to have a look at that as a place to start. You can always go to the more elaborate methods later on as you learn.

I'll also note that rubbery flavors are usually associated with yeast autolysis whereas chloramine usually lends a smoky/plastic/bandaid aroma and flavor. Wheat beers at first have a lot of yeast in suspension and this can lead to a rubbery sort of flavor but not one nearly as strong as would be associated with autolysis.