Off flavors

[bguthrie]

I finished my third batch, all extract kits.
The first batch, Caribou Slobber, turned out great!
The second batch, Dead Ringer, finished with a bitter-caramel flavor.
I followed the instructions, OG 1.060 @ 76 degrees.
Primary fermentations in glass carboy (clean & sanitized(star-san)) at 64 for 2 weeks.
Secondary ferm, glass 5 gal carboy at 70 2 weeks.
FG 1.015.
Bottle conditioned 2 weeks at 60.

After brewing I found out my H20 has a very low PH.

Did I do something wrong or is it my H20?

[elephantbear]

What yeast did you use? Fermentation temp of 76 is probably where your off flavors are coming from…that’s a pretty high temp for fermenting most (not all) styles. Do you have any fermentation temperature control that you can use? Using a swamp cooler has proven to be the biggest improvement in my process for yielding high quality batches with minimal off flavors.

[bguthrie]

The yeast was us-05.
The fern temp was 64-68
The temp at the time of of was 76

[bguthrie]

76 was temp at time of OG reading

[grainy]

Dead Ringer has a much different taste and hop profile then the Caribou Slobber, I would not worry about water P.H. instead make sure there is no chlorine in the water by adding Camden tabs. or use water from the store. I’m thinking that you may be tasting the hops, all looks good with your temps and yeast

[bguthrie]

I love IPAs. Hoppy beers are my fav. It just tastes bitter to me

[bguthrie]

I’m doing an all grain IPA next. I’ll try the Camden tabs. I was considering using store water in conjunction with my tap. What would be a good ratio?

[ljb]

It’s pretty hard to answer that without knowing the makeup of your tap water. Not knowing that, you may want to use 100% distilled water and add salts to fit the style of the beer. Use Bru’N Water or EZWater spreadsheets to calculate the additions and quantities.