Everyone has been so helpful so far with my first brew, so I’m hoping that I can get some more advice.
I just bottled my first batch last week, a Private Rye. Everything with the brewing and fermenting seemed to go well, although bottling day was a bit of a panic when my capper broke after 3 bottles and I had to drive to the local homebrew store to buy a new one. Not fun. But now that I’ve tasted a conditioned and chilled brew, there is that vinyl/Band Aid taste and smell that won’t go away. A few days before bottling I took a couple gravity readings and drank the samples, and tasted the same vinyl taste. I had thought that it was from the sample tube and was hoping it would go away when I bottled, but it’s still there. After some research I see that it’s most likely from either the tap water (my tap water tastes fine to me, but I am pretty sure they use chlorine) or from using One Step. Is this correct for me to assume that by using bottled water for brewing and using Star San next time, I should hopefully be in the clear? Do I need to use the bottled water for mixing with the Star San too?
And now what do I do with 46 bottles of Johnson & Johnson’s brand Private Rye? Is it safe to drink if you can get past the taste? Should I try adding fruit flavoring or something to make it salvageable? Is the taste going to get more or less present over time?
Yep, it was tap water. The NB DVD says as long as the water tastes good, it is good to use. My tap water tastes good, but I think they do use chlorine in it.
It is safe to drink. I had a dry Irish stout that developed a peach flavor from fermenting to low with US-05. I covered the taste with some cold brewed coffee in each glass. Perhaps you could find an additive for your beer.
I used the yeast at 63° to 64° for the stout. I also brewed amber ales at the same temperature without noticing the off flavor. Type and amount of hops makes a difference on whether there is an off flavor.
Household, point-of-use, activated carbon drinking water filters (like Pur and Britta) are not very effective at removing chloramines from water; the contact time is just too low. The surefire and cheapest way to deal with it is to add campden (potassium metabisulfite).
That brings me to my second point. If you’re doing extract brews the easiest way to eliminate water issues all together is to use either distilled water or Reverse Osmosis (RO) water from a reliable source. (I use RO water from a local, large grocery store chain that regularly inspects and maintains their system.) Not only have you eliminated chlorine and chloramine issues, you’ve also eliminated potential off-flavor creators cause by other minerals found in your tap water.
So I thought I would update this, as a reference for anyone else googling this problem in the future. The off taste was not as bad as I thought initially, I think I was just overreacting. It also seemed to fade a little bit over time. And finally, having enough foresight to put a couple away until now (6 months later), I was able to see that the off flavor and smell is now completely undetectable! I know that’s not the norm for phenols to fade over time, but I guess it did this time. So I will end by saying what a million people told me, give your beers time and they will get better!
I’m sure I will need this encouragement read back to me in the future too…
[quote=“Ken in MN”]Household, point-of-use, activated carbon drinking water filters (like Pur and Britta) are not very effective at removing chloramines from water; the contact time is just too low. The surefire and cheapest way to deal with it is to add campden (potassium metabisulfite).
That brings me to my second point. If you’re doing extract brews the easiest way to eliminate water issues all together is to use either distilled water or Reverse Osmosis (RO) water from a reliable source. (I use RO water from a local, large grocery store chain that regularly inspects and maintains their system.) Not only have you eliminated chlorine and chloramine issues, you’ve also eliminated potential off-flavor creators cause by other minerals found in your tap water.[/quote]
This is what I had to do, learned all these points the hard way. On top of chlorine I eventually learned that my hard water wasn’t helping me either. Could have avoided both by just starting with RO water from the beginning until I learned about water chemistry and brewing.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but does’t boiling rid water of chlorine? If you boil the water before doing any brewing activity then shouldn’t all worries be null?
OK, so I have never used Campden but it seems that we are adding a chemical with a sulhure component to get rid of Chlorine and Chloramine. Does the Campden have any residual taste or any issue associated with it? I am rather lucky in that my water is fantastic but I will be moving at some point and may not be as lucky at my next residence.
At the recommended concentrations, it has no detectable flavors. Many commercial wines are heavily sulphited, and it does have a flavor, or at least an aroma. But at 1 tablet per 10 gallons? None whatsoever. And it does dissipate out of the liquid over time.