Water?

[cjbalough]

What do you use for your extract brewing water and why? I've had a string of bad batches this summer and am leaning towards blaming my use of ro/ filtered city water from a machine at the local health store. Previous batches have used bottled spring, distilled, and "purified drinking water" - most using a mixture of spring and distilled. Problem I'm having is yeasty- nasty tasting beer. These are safeale 04 and 05 beers...lightly hopped and light flavored beers (cerveza, light american, and a Mexican Vienna style. - all as ales). .is it the water or just the yeast?

 

[9mmruger]

I use my well water and do not have any problems so far. Of course sanitation or equipments is imperative. I do not boil the water, straight from the ground to the sanitized fermenter. I do sanitize the hose end.

 

[unionrdr]

I use either spring water from Giant Eagle, or from White House Artisian Springs @ 25c per gallon. The Giant Eagle one (still Ohio spring water) seems to be a tad better hop-wise. I even rehydrate or make starters with spring water. Also, at least trying to pitch a good amount of yeast at high krausen (foamy) works quicker & better in my experiences. Allow the beer to finish & settle out clear or slightly misty helps a little as well. But pitch rate seems to have more to do with to me.

 

[duboman]

If the previous batches you mentioned turned out good and you switched the water and then experienced problems then yes, I would say the change in water is your issue but your question is not really clear.

Also, yeasty and nasty tasting are kind of hard to define, perhaps you could list more descriptive terms used in brewing evaluations like green apple, band aid, rubber, phenolic, etc....

Here is a good resource: http://www.beerjudgeschool.com/uploads/Beer_Characteristics_Flash_Cards.pdf

 

[Reindeer]

I've never used anything but spring or distilled water. The water out of my tap doesn't taste that great on its own, I figure its worth a couple bucks to buy a few jugs of water so I know what I'm getting.

 

[harleybug88]

My tap water is so full of iron that it's undrinkable. I would never use it for brewing.

I use the "Pur" filter with a dispenser that has a tap. ( I have two ). They work great, crystal clear water. Great for brewing and cheaper then buying water.

 

[masskrug]

I use a drinking water hose with an RV filter.

 

[Hammy71]

Extract brewing is too expensive to risk a bad batch. Spend the 10 bucks and buy some spring water from the grocery store.

 

[Nagorg]

Use distilled or RO water when extract brewing for best results. Think of it like this, the company that made the extract already figured out the water profile, made the wort and then dehydrated the wort to the point of a liquid (LME) or a powder (LME). After this process, the minerals are left behind in the extract. All you need to do is add pure water back and you will have wort essentially the same as it was when the company made it.

If you use anything other than distilled or RO, you are dramatically changing the water composition by adding additional minerals and this will affect the flavor of your beer.

 

[unionrdr]

True to a point. I've found that the White House Artisian Springs water, being filtered, ozoned, etc works very well for AE to PM for me. The Giant Eagle spring water gives a hair better hop qualities. Neither have made any of my beers off flavored or weird tasting. There isn't a lot of minerals in them, just a little. These Ohio spring waters come from pockets in the bedrock.

 

[cjbalough]

Thanks, I had been using about a 50/50 blend of distilled and spring water before trying the ro water from the machine at the health food store...think I'll spend a few $ more and stick with that.

Nagorg..that is my thought on the water for extract, except that I like to at least use spring water for the steeping grains... Figure the minerals can provide something?? ...

 

[unionrdr]

Using spring water for the mash & rehydrating yeast has worked out real well for me. I think it helps the flavors in the finished beer vs distilled or tap.

 

[hellawaits77]

I personally use bottled spring water.


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[Nagorg]

I didn't say that Spring water wouldn't work, I said "for best results"... Use what works for you. But you would likely get better results with RO or distilled when brewing with extract!

 

[cjbalough]

How would you describe the flavor chlorine (and similar) give to a beer? I ask because - now as the "yeasty" young beer flavors are subsiding I'm left with a flavor that I (and my amateur palate) can't really describe....but it seems similar to the nasty taste I had in one of my first batches when I accidentally floated my cooling pot in my kitchen sink and added straight city tap water....lesson learned. Thinking the health store ro machine wasn't working as advertised

 

[unionrdr]

Chlorine generally tastes like Band-aids.

 

[Roundhouse]

When I do extract beers, I take the exact same approach that I do for all grain. I treat all of my all grain brewing water (RO) with phosphoric acid to a ph of 5.5. My logic is that extract is really just a mash that has been dehydrated to the point that it's really thick so it's really still just mashed grains that need good water added back. Since I sparge with 5.5 ph water, I assume that using 5.5 ph water with extract is really just the same thing. It should be. Since I've done this, my extract beers have been fantastic. No more "extract twang" which I believe comes from too high of a finishing ph. They just don't taste like stereotypical extract beers. Water ph is hugely important to taste. I've made some very nice extract beers this way. If I'm too lazy to do an all grain batch, this is how I do it.

 

[unionrdr]

Now that makes sense. Whatever's in your water will be translated into flavor &/or aroma. I'll have to read up on water profiles now.

 

[cjbalough]

Never really tasted a bandaid. But that may be the flavor - after the young beer yeastiness has subsided....disappointed and depressed it took 3 batches to pinpoint. Time to find $ ant go on a replacement brewing binge. I'm sure the fact that all 3 are light flavored adjuncts (cerveza- corn sugar, Vienna-rice solids , & american ale- corn syrup) didn't help me any.

 

[duboman]

Diacetyl could be your issue as well if they were all light styles you mention. Think buttered popcorn, slickness on your teeth or Rolling Rock beer


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[Nagorg]

An interesting thread on this topic...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/attention-all-extract-brewers-harsh-bitterness-aftertaste-128731/

 

[Roundhouse]

Since I treat water for extract beers exactly the same as all grain beers, I also add calcium chloride or calcium sulfate back to them during the boil as well. This with all RO water treated to 5.5 ph before adding extracts and the final result is always a very smooth beer that has no hints of being a stereotypical extract beer.

 

[flatlanderHQ]

I use RO water for the majority of the water along with a small amount of purified mineral containing water for my partial mashing. This way I can make specific water adjustments to suit the style I'm brewing.


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[cjbalough]

after some time, I think I have 3 tings going

1) Mexican Vienna ale - its an ale version of a lager, too sweet (wondering if LHBS girl gave me too much honey malt/ not enough light crstal
2) English ale yeast and a light American ale - this one isn't too bad after aging, thinking the English ale yeast left it just a bit sweet
3) Mexican cerveza, thinking, again that LHBS over did the honey malt, + English ale yeast left it too malty/sweet.

Not sure what/if the water had a factor other than delaying the final taste????

 

[Nagorg]

For anyone that's still interested, watch or listen to this BeerSmith podcast with John Palmer. In this podcast, water is discussed with a special comment about extract brewing...

http://beersmith.com/blog/2014/06/0...rewers-from-john-palmer-beersmith-podcast-82/
"John shares why he thinks bottled water is often a good choice for extract brewers"

 

[podz]

If you ask the biochemists who design the yeast intended for the homebrew market, I believe that most of them will tell you that they design for normal tap water. At least I have read postings from multiple scientists among them that concur this thinking. RO removes most of the minerals that the biochemists design for. That said, if your tap water smells like rotten peanuts (very high iron levels) then I would prefer RO water - or move somewhere else!