21 replies to this topic

[reDough]

So, my beer tastes like Mr.Wizard's butthole due to the city adding chloramine to the water. I was thinking maybe I could oak it to cover it up, any suggestions? It's a stout and also a barleywine.

[jammer]

sodium metabisulfite or potassium metabisulfite https://en.wikipedia...wiki/Chloramine :PEdit to add: I guess this is for next time. I dont think itll do any good for the beer you already made. Maybe add coffee or something to the darker beers?

[tag]

Campden tablets (or metabisulfite) will get rid of the chloramines in your brewing water ahead of time, but I don't think it will help now.

[Slainte]

I dunno man. Garbage in, garbage out. Oak might cover it up a bit...might be worth a shot. Personally I have no problem dumping beer like that. Why force yourself to drink schwag beer?But next time just add a little bit of Potassium metabisulfite to your brewing liquor. That'll take care of it.

[Zulu]

Call it a Belgian Strong ..... and remember to fight it next brewI had a brew that I used a new water hose as my brew hose was frozen, tasted overly strong phenols (chlorine) from the PVC and had to chuck it

[Stout_fan]

So, my beer tastes like Mr.Wizard's butthole ...

And how exactly do you know this?I'd suggest calling it ButtWiper and pass it off on all your "friends."Seriously dude:potassium metabisulfite.

[HERMSman]

And how exactly do you know this?I'd suggest calling it ButtWiper and pass it off on all your "friends."Seriously dude:potassium metabisulfite.

I filter my water through a carbon filter that takes all the chloramine out, D-28 filter from Culligan

[stellarbrew]

Consign this beer to the latter half of drinking sessions. Save your good beer for the first 4 glasses, and then make the switch to the wizard-butt beer after your taste buds have become desensitized.

[Slainte]

I filter my water through a carbon filter that takes all the chloramine out, D-28 filter from Culligan

No, it reduces chloramine, doesn't take it all out. Although the slower you filter the more effective it is.

[reDough]

Damn it all to hell.

[HERMSman]

No, it reduces chloramine, doesn't take it all out. Although the slower you filter the more effective it is.

Yes, a slow fill-in... 1/2 gallon per minute

[zymot]

I barely passed HS chemistry, but seems to me you can try 1/2 to 1 a campden tablet in a 5 gallon batch that has finished fermenting and see what happens. I do not think the campden tablet will be noticeable. I know wine makers use a greater concentration and I think of wine as having a more delicate flavor profile. Maybe the chloramine molecules have already bonded to some enzyme or a glucosamine carbon chain or something, (no - I do not know what I am talking about) and the camden tablet won't do anything. But I highly doubt it will hurt anything, especially if it is that bad to begin with.zymot

[ANUSTART]

I add KMeta to my strike and sparge water. I've calculated the equivalent amount of the 1/x tablet per 5 gallon rule of thumb and it turns out be an unmeasurable (on my scale) fraction of a gram of the powder per the amount of water I use in sparge and strike. So I just use a dusting in each pot. I think it was DJ who had the great idea to fill a salt shaker with Kmeta and just put a dash into the pot. You don't need a lot of the stuff. I've had a small jar for almost 2 years, and that includes 3 wine batches. Wine uses a lot more of it.Edit... should've read better. Use Kmeta next time. For this batch... just drink it. It's better than the crap you can buy in the south anyway.

[xd_haze]

Of course, it won't hurt to add 1/2 campden tab to finished beer. If you naturally carb, it could retard the yeast activity. However, my guess is that your not tasting the chloramine, you're tasting the phenols that result from yeast interacting with cloramine. The damage has likely been done.I used to get by with just filtering my water with a regular carbon whole house filter, but I got a notice saying that the city was moving to chloramine. I've started using campden tabs as a safety precaution.mike h

I barely passed HS chemistry, but seems to me you can try 1/2 to 1 a campden tablet in a 5 gallon batch that has finished fermenting and see what happens. I do not think the campden tablet will be noticeable. I know wine makers use a greater concentration and I think of wine as having a more delicate flavor profile. Maybe the chloramine molecules have already bonded to some enzyme or a glucosamine carbon chain or something, (no - I do not know what I am talking about) and the camden tablet won't do anything. But I highly doubt it will hurt anything, especially if it is that bad to begin with.zymot

[Noontime]

I add KMeta to my strike and sparge water. I've calculated the equivalent amount of the 1/x tablet per 5 gallon rule of thumb and it turns out be an unmeasurable (on my scale) fraction of a gram of the powder per the amount of water I use in sparge and strike. So I just use a dusting in each pot. I think it was DJ who had the great idea to fill a salt shaker with Kmeta and just put a dash into the pot. You don't need a lot of the stuff. I've had a small jar for almost 2 years, and that includes 3 wine batches. Wine uses a lot more of it.Edit... should've read better. Use Kmeta next time. For this batch... just drink it. It's better than the crap you can buy in the south anyway.

I'm glad this came up (though I'm sorry about your beer reTodd...I would drink it by the way...I thought the coffee was a good idea). Coming over from winemaking I was wondering why Kmeta was not used considering beer is more susceptible to infection. Is there a down side to using it?

[ANUSTART]

I'm glad this came up (though I'm sorry about your beer reTodd...I would drink it by the way...I thought the coffee was a good idea). Coming over from winemaking I was wondering why Kmeta was not used considering beer is more susceptible to infection. Is there a down side to using it?

Only downside I could think of is in adding too much. Because I add it before the boil and fermentation, I guess it's possible that some of it might stick around until I pitch the yeast. If there's any in there when you pitch it could cause a slow start, or no start at all, depending on how much. Since I use fractions of grams, I don't worry about this. I've never used it in the way that you use it for wine though, I only use it to (theoretically) remove chloramine. I'm not sure that beer would benefit from a large dosage of KMeta like wine does. Even on the wine kits I've done, I dont use it as a sanitizer, just for anti-oxidizing.

[denny]

Of course, it won't hurt to add 1/2 campden tab to finished beer. If you naturally carb, it could retard the yeast activity. However, my guess is that your not tasting the chloramine, you're tasting the phenols that result from yeast interacting with cloramine. The damage has likely been done.

This is correct.

[reDough]

It's really not that bad. Cold and slightly carbed is already a tremendous improvement. It tastes a lot like Old Rasputin so I'm callin it an imperial stout even though stylewise etc it doesnt fit, I dont care I brew for my drinking pleasure, nothing else. This is actually the beer I brewed in my video, I'm just now getting around to kegging it Anyway, here's what I'm calling it.

[reDough]

Results are in for the pseudo-stout. I took a mason jar and added some oak chips and sampled daily for a week. The oak really softened the phenolic flavor. The coffee seemed to make it sharper. So I'm oaking the entire keg. As for the barleywine I'm gonna experiment with vanilla and oak. I'll let you know how it goes. I was surprised that of all the discussions about chloramine online none are about how to mask this god awful flavor. Imma be a trend setter

[reDough]

How can I hang one of those stainless tea balls in the keg? I was thinking fishing line?