# Brisbane Water - Chloramines Dammit



## lou (20/5/05)

Hi ya all 
I have just done another AG brew - brand new 1084 yeast - made a few booboos along the way but once agaiin I have a disgusting mediciny flavour developing in the beer. I thought Brisbane used chlorine in the water supply and so i was letting the water sit out over night before brew day to sort out this problem. Turns out it was waste of time 

quote/ from brisbane water 
http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/BCC:BRISWAT...c=PC_1427,##9


ammonia and chlorine are added to form chloramine, which kills bacteria. Chloramine is maintained in the water to ensure bacteria do not re-grow in the distribution system and the water remains disinfected


dammit dammit dammit :angry: :angry: :angry: 

do I need to use camdem tablets and how much - 

- luckily i am still doing small test batches and have only wasted 2 12 litre batches

lou


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## shmick (20/5/05)

Hi Lou
From memory, chloramine does break down and evaporate from water but it takes a while (a week or 2).
Boiling greatly speeds this process up but I have no figures as to how long.
I suspect when boiling the wort, this is where most of the damage occurs also.

Charcoal (activitated carbon) filters may get rid of some of it or else find a cheap bottled water.
Try asking a tropical fish keeping enthusiast or website.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/

Best of luck.


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## jgriffin (20/5/05)

Mate, i've never had a problem brewing with brisbane water. Having said that, doesn't sodium met neutralise Chloramine?

http://www.byo.com/mrwizard/1260.html


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## Guest Lurker (20/5/05)

Camden tablets (sod or potassium met, cant remember which) are supposed to precipitate chloramines. There are several posts on HBD working out required ppm and dosing rates but I can never find them again when I go looking. I use half a tablet in 20 l which I think I worked out from one of those posts. This is also supposed to give some protection against long term oxidation. I try to warn any asthmatics to be sure they arent really sensitive to it before giving them my beer.


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## Wortgames (20/5/05)

Lou - here is an excerpt lifted from http://www.brewing-forum.net/brewing/Homeb...005_408427.html

> "The required dose is simple to calculate: Take 
> twice the chloramine level, add the chlorine level, and divide by 
> 6. This is the number of [campden] tablets required to treat 20 
> gallons. Scale this value according to how many gallons to be 
> treated. For example, if I were to brew with the local water, 
> which has 3 mg/L chloramine, I would need one tablet per 20 
> gallons." 
> 
> A.J. also wrote, "My experiments have shown that perhaps 20-30% 
> more potassium metabisulfite than calculated should be used to be 
> on the safe side." And, "[since campden tablets may be sodium or 
> potassium. If you are uncertain whether they are potassium or 
> sodium salt, have the supplier check with the wholesaler, or just 
> assume they are potassium. If you guess wrong, you will be adding 
> 17% more bisulfite than you need -- not a significant amount." 
> And, "Your beer will easily tolerate two or three times the 
> required dose (vintners use one or two tablets per gallon), so if 
> our answer contains a fraction of a tablet, you can just round up 
> to the nearest whole tablet." 

FYI you can also filter with activated carbon to reduce chloramines.

Some other info here:
http://ajdel.wetnewf.org:81/Brewing_articles/BT_Chlorine.pdf

and here:
http://www.brewinfo.com/2003WaterLecture/WATERFINAL.pdf


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## Tim (20/5/05)

sodium met or sodium thiosulphate will remove chlorides, bromides and iodides from aqueous solution. It will also remove chloramine (or ammonium chloride) as it is a salt and dissociates into NH4+ and Cl- ions in solution.


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## SteveSA (20/5/05)

Guest Lurker said:


> I try to warn any asthmatics to be sure they arent really sensitive to it before giving them my beer.
> [post="59916"][/post]​


GL

I'm under the impression that sodium met and potassium met dissipate to nothing during the boil. I use it (very carefully) to reduce the risk of oxidation and also am very mild asthmatic.

Do you know if a residual amount could last long enough to make it to the final product? Or do you tell them purely as a precaution?

Steve


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## jgriffin (20/5/05)

I thought it was only in powered form that it caused a problem?


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## Guest Lurker (20/5/05)

SteveSA said:


> Guest Lurker said:
> 
> 
> > I try to warn any asthmatics to be sure they arent really sensitive to it before giving them my beer.
> ...


Steve

I have no idea, well, I am reasonably sure the low levels I use and after boiling it isnt going to be a problem, certainly less than the amount in a bottle of wine, its just that when you hand someone a craft brewed beer they are expecting a preservative free product, and arguably mine isnt any more. So yes its purely a precaution.


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