Brisbane North Water lately

[jatterbury]

Hi Guys,

Looking for some advice here, my last two all-grain brews both developed a medicinal taste that presented at the back of the tongue/throat. The taste only became apparent after about day 4 of fermentation in both brews..
Trying to isolate it I gave everything I brew with and even slightly involved a thorough cleaning.
Then I grabbed a fresh wort kit (15L) from the local brew store and made it upto 20L in the fermenter using tap water.

Today is Day 5 in the fermenter, yeast is cracking along and gravity looks good, I took a sample and noticed the same medicinal taste but greatly reduced to a level that its drinkable, if I hadn't of tasted it before it would have been difficult to identify.

So after alot of reading on brew faults it seems that it may be a result of chloramine in the water, anyone else in brisbane north (everton park so south pine damn i think) experiencing issues recently?

I plan to get this brew either bottled or into secondary asap and put down another fresh wort kit using purchased water as a final test. The use of fresh wort kits was to rule out my milling/biab steps.

Cheers.
Josh

 

[Beersuit]

I don't know if this will help but try leaving a glass of water full overnight then taste it the next day. I was having water problems at my last place and found that if my water sat for a period it would get a strange taste. At first thought it was an infection but after drinking a glass of water that was left out found the taste was in the water. Now a Camden tablet in the urn a day before brew day and it's all gone.

 

[Eagleburger]

On the southside, but I had to toss a batch a few weeks ago due to medicine flavour. I was having a couple of off flavour issues so it was a bit confusing at the time. Our water starting about the time of the offending brew got a strong chlorine smell. Coincidently, directly after that batch I installed a sediment and an activated carbon filter and the subsequent brews had no problem. I am now paranoid and replaced the sediment filter with another carbon. At 4 litres per hour flow, the resident time in the carbon far exceeds the time needed for chloromine removal and the carbon still filters particulates down to 1um. Also got some ascorbic acid for good measure. Campden is effective too.