Help with Water

[Newkid]

Hi All
i am a new too all grain brewing brewed about 6 brews now
i have been getting a metalic taste to my beer , all i can think is must be my water?? so i am now using Brewfather for my brews but having trouble with water calcs
My report is as follows Total Chlorine 0.91 (mg/l) PH 7.62-8 Calcium 13.4-17.4 Sodium 16.3 (mg/l) Sulphate 11(mg/l) Iron <0.0005-0.014 (mg/l) Magnesium 4.82 - 6.31(mg/l)
Chloride 32.5 (mg/l) Alkalinity 54.1 (mgCaCO3/L
i have set my home water to Ca2 17 Mg2 6 Na 16 Cl 33 SO4 11 Hco3 66
can any one tell me if this is correct!!!
i am not sure about Hco3 is correct
i am brewing pale ales and ipa
many thanks

 

[kadmium]

Hi All
i am a new too all grain brewing brewed about 6 brews now
i have been getting a metalic taste to my beer , all i can think is must be my water?? so i am now using Brewfather for my brews but having trouble with water calcs
My report is as follows Total Chlorine 0.91 (mg/l) PH 7.62-8 Calcium 13.4-17.4 Sodium 16.3 (mg/l) Sulphate 11(mg/l) Iron <0.0005-0.014 (mg/l) Magnesium 4.82 - 6.31(mg/l)
Chloride 32.5 (mg/l) Alkalinity 54.1 (mgCaCO3/L
i have set my home water to Ca2 17 Mg2 6 Na 16 Cl 33 SO4 11 Hco3 66
can any one tell me if this is correct!!!
i am not sure about Hco3 is correct
i am brewing pale ales and ipa
many thanks

Sorry mate just need to clarify a bit.

Are you using your tap water and have the water report from your supplier?

What makes you think the metallic taste comes from your water?

What profiles are you trying to achieve?

Have you noticed the metallic taste more in some styles over others?

What water profiles are you trying to achieve?

Water chemistry is something that should be tackled once you have a good grasp of the process.

I do suggest adding Potassium Metabisulphate to your water to remove chlorine and chloramine. This can be in the form of a campden tablet, 1/2 is more than enough for a standard batch of 21L

But unless you have a pH meter and a solid understanding you can do more harm than good. Not having a go or anything it took me a while to get my head around water chemistry.

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

Are you using a lot of no rinse phosphoric acid based sanitiser? Happened to a mate of mine who overdid it a bit, he cut it down and the metallic taste disappeared.

 

[MHB]

The number one cause of metallic flavours is well Metal!
Mostly Copper and Brass, especially if you believe in no rinse, just leaves a coating of soluble metal salts on the surface.
Go through your system and look for copper and brass, remove them if you can or rinse over with dilute acid (vinegar will do) just before you brew, rinse well with water then fill up your system.
Better to remove it if you can.
Mark

 

[Newkid]

Are you using a lot of no rinse phosphoric acid based sanitiser? Happened to a mate of mine who overdid it a bit, he cut it down and the metallic taste disappeared.

Yes I am using a no rinse sanitiser !! Will now have to rinse it out and see if that helps??
Thanks

 

[Newkid]

The number one cause of metallic flavours is well Metal!
Mostly Copper and Brass, especially if you believe in no rinse, just leaves a coating of soluble metal salts on the surface.
Go through your system and look for copper and brass, remove them if you can or rinse over with dilute acid (vinegar will do) just before you brew, rinse well with water then fill up your system.
Better to remove it if you can.
Mark

Thanks will try a rinse with vinegar and try that
Cheers

 

[kadmium]

Yes I am using a no rinse sanitiser !! Will now have to rinse it out and see if that helps??
Thanks

Don't rinse off no rinse. I use star San (or LHBS equivalent) and don't notice a metallic off flavour in my beer nor do I suppose thousands of brewers.

It could be a contributing factor if used incorrectly, but I would look at other factors first.

For what it's worth, I use a copper immersion chiller as well as star San like it's going out of fashion and not once had a complaint about metallic taste that I couldn't pin to something else. Usually it's a young beer with noble hops (young pilsners with yeast sediment) or cheap malt I find gives that megaswill tang.

"Metallic" is a hard descriptor to nail down as it could be perceived by people as different.

 

[MHB]

I think we are talking about using no-rinse on hot side equipment, where if there is a lot of it used and there are some reactive metals (copper brass...) it could form some metal salts that would remain in place.
As soon as the equipment is filled these salts go into solution and can give a metallic flavour.

A couple of days ago I posted a copy of the complete flavour guide, well worth downloading it and searching (Ctrl f) for metallic.
You will get a heap of hits to work through.
Mark

 

[djebel]

Is that water report for your house/brewery? Or the default one for your area?

A problem I've come across several times: how old are your water pipes? Old gal pipes can lead to a strong metallic flavour in home brew.

 

[Newkid]

Is that water report for your house/brewery? Or the default one for your area?

A problem I've come across several times: how old are your water pipes? Old gal pipes can lead to a strong metallic flavour in home brew.

Water report from supplier no gal pipes all Polly pipes to house
I am going to try a couple of changes to how I prepare my Grainfather for a brew (sanitising)

 

[Newkid]

I think we are talking about using no-rinse on hot side equipment, where if there is a lot of it used and there are some reactive metals (copper brass...) it could form some metal salts that would remain in place.
As soon as the equipment is filled these salts go into solution and can give a metallic flavour.

A couple of days ago I posted a copy of the complete flavour guide, well worth downloading it and searching (Ctrl f) for metallic.
You will get a heap of hits to work through.
Mark

Thanks I will enjoy the read.

 

[frosty3]

May not be your problem but when I was bottling I used to sometimes get a metallic flavour from the lids on older bottles.

 

[DazGore]

To the OP, does your water straight out of the tap taste metallic, if not, then it's from another source.
As MHB said, it could be from your hot side.