Out of curiosity why do you think that you need to adjust your water. As a home brewer and a professional brewer I rarely make adjustment to my water. 99% of the time there is just no need. By using the water in your area it gives your beer the uniqueness that can’t be copied unless someone adjust their water profile to you local water. The main thing i pay much attention to is my mash ph. You can add all the water adjustments you want but that don’t mean that your beer is going to be better for it or cause it. Their are many award winning beers that just brew with the water in their geographical area without water adjustments
2 Likes
Well it all started at the very beginning. My tap water has chlorine and I didnt care for the taste of it in general. I thought best way was to just use bottled. So with extract I used bottled/distilled water. I just didn’t want to deal with it. Then after going into all grain I figured I needed to know my water report to help make sure mash pH was in proper range. So still not wanting to deal with chlorine I figured it was easier to just use bottled. Which then I blamed on my poor outcome with batches and here we are.
If I used one of those diy water filters with hoses attached to a whole home filter I didnt want the filter to sit wet between brew days. Drying it out didn’t seem great either. I tried campden tablets and my tap but still wasn’t sure about the outcome.
I’m feeling this these days.
1 Like
Just out of curiosity you said you weren’t happy with you extract but was the off taste the same or something else. I don’t mess with my water my pH comes in within range and the beer comes out well so I don’t bother.
1 Like
I think Loopie and Damien actually condensed this whole water debacle… And If we stop over thinking the problem, its right there… An old statement,I think from Charlie P.(won’t even try to write his name) “If your water tastes good, it’ll make great beer!”
pH correction is very valid point. To aid in better extraction, aid in clarification, keep tannins in check… I will need to have the pro’s add to the list. I use only acid for that.
I’ll await to hear how your next brew turns out MHall! Sneezles61
1 Like
Nailed it @loopie_beer
@damian_winter I know we’ve agreed to disagree on the subject of water treatment before but I like @squeegeethree am getting closer to your logic by the day…
I mean correcting mash pH will keep you from brewing bad beer unless you have some crazy water.
To get a good batch under you belt I’d stick with the distilled/brunwater method for your next batch.
I’d say that depends on the ber style you’re making. I can make moid color beers with no adjustment, but for light stuff like pils or tripel, or dark stuff like porter or stout, adjustment is essential for me to produce a good beer.
Getting ready to jump back in. Decided on a hefeweizen to change it up and get me excited to brew again.
I’m going with my tap water this time. Going to run it through a camco rv filter and drinking water hose. Skipping any adjustments.
Also read a recent Zymurgy article on the boil and wanted to change my process slightly. Think I’m going to cover the kettle partial for some amount of time while still allowing time for dms to be released. Overall looking to reduce the vigor of my boil.
Its good to see are back! I suspect the parenting takes up most your spare time…
The boil off and such is another deep hole to jump into… There are as many thoughts as brewers… I enjoy a rigorous boil… Although I did do a short and shoddy the other day that was very good too… Sneezles61
I don’t see how covering your pot is going to help you reduce the rigor of your boil. What are you hoping to gain?
Overall I want to reduce boil intensity. The article is Advances in Wort Boiling by Martin Brungard.
My point was that covering your pot won’t help you reduce the rigor of your boil
Covering should reduce evaporation losses which should allow me to lower the amount of energy needed. Either way though.
Overall I’m intrested in what Martin had to say in the article about lowering boil intensity, reducing evaporative loss, creating less TBA, and other benefits he mentioned.
I’ve played around with a few batches of no boil, low boil, and raw beers. Not really a fan of what the results were. Maybe you’ll have better luck. Personally I’m not worried about 2-thiobarbituric acid.
