Home Brew Taste

[rendo]

Hey Big Nath & Monchan,

Here's cheers to making kick ass beer!! :beerbang:

Rendo/MHB

i reckon in a time when there is a lot of mudslinging going on at times, both of your recent posts in this thread are some of the best i've read. Very refreshing to still see some people willing to go the extra yard to dish out excellent advice.

For beginner brewers, read these guys last posts on this thread. All the best tips in one place.

cheers boys!

nath

 

[rendo]

Will try spring water next, I`ll be more patient, before I crack one open biting my nails looking at the calendar.
RENDO/ MHB big cheers and to everyone else.

MC, thx m8
regarding spring water, by all means use it, youre sure to find heaps on info on it here, plenty of people do use it. I am not a big fan, proper mineral is just that, not really "pure" water. It has salts, minerals etc in it. I am sure it will make beer that tastes just fine, should be an improvement on tap water..i imagine. Maybe you can look for water that is just pure water, eg reverse osmosis etc, not mineral/spring water, I am not too sure of the range at the supermarkets. Don't be tempted to by the carbonated mineral water!!! haha. Or just get yourself a brita water filter jug. Use it for the home, the kids, the kettle and most importantly...BEER MAKING

Rendo

 

[rendo]

beers formed a head differently, with big loose bubbles and a funny mouth feel on the way down, no lacing on the glass etc."

this was to be my next question, I get a good head when I pour, but it dissapears fairly quickly and I find my
self looking into the class for bubbles to check its carbonated to a good level, it is.
Next brew will be markedly different from my last, And I think I`ll try some carapils for the head.

For sure, carapils is great, I find that using carapils(about 100g - 300g) , along with 500g-1000g of LDME and 300-400g of wheat malt powder gives a great head that lasts the whole glass...depending on so many other factors too of course.....

 

[manticle]

Water for beer supposedly needs some minerals in it. Calcium is definitely one so if using pure or filted water types you may need to tweak the profile more than otherwise using salts.

Probably better just to preboil the water you have in your tap (cheaper too)

 

[rendo]

Yeah, so true....I was trying to stay away from the whole side of water chemistry. I prob shouldnt have mentioned "PURE" water...but yeah, for all the new guys, there is a whole science behing the water chemistry/composition for differening styles of beer. Google and AHB google will give u a lot of info, but I didnt want to open up that here...

I use to boil the water for the brew too...but couldnt be bothered now....the brita water filter gets used for all driniing water in the house, and brewing, it leaves flouride in, so thats (arguably) a good thing for us & our teeth, not sure about the beer....so the night before brewing, whether watching the tv, drinking some homebrew, on AHB or all the above, I just have my 20L willow cube beside me and fill it up over the course of an hour or three. Once its done it goes into the brewing fridge to chill, ready for the next day. Its great as I dont have to stuff around trying to get the right temp for pitching the yeast. Multi-tasking is hard for a male, but I can manage it when it comes to brewing

rendo

Water for beer supposedly needs some minerals in it. Calcium is definitely one so if using pure or filted water types you may need to tweak the profile more than otherwise using salts.

Probably better just to preboil the water you have in your tap (cheaper too)

 

[manticle]

I agree that the last thing a kit brewer wants to be thinking about is water chemistry. I've just seen a lot of people recommend against using pure spring type waters unless you add salts to adjust the profile. Thus boiling would be easier to see if it makes a difference.

For me both kit beers and extract beers don't have a twang so much as a flavour I associate with extract. It's generally just a slight one dimensional characteristic. This can be removed by additions of spec grain and hop additions. Decent yeasts also bring a whole new perspective to brewing.

As mentioned - none of these mean diddly if you are not clean, sanitary and fermenting at a good temperature range.

I'm not sure about the water thing. I've tasted chlorephenols in a beer and they are horrible but that was due to inadequate rinsing after using bleach as a sanitiser. I never got that flavour when I did kit or extract brews. However it's worth trying at least once either boiling the full volume of water or adding sod. met. to the water to see if it makes a difference.

Only add sod. met. if your water uses chloramines - personally I would never use the stuff without rinsing it off.

As for the isohop thing - I was informed in response to an email that coopers do use isohop ocassionally in both their bottled beer and kits to maintain consistency but that the majority of their bitterness in both comes from fresh kettle additions.

Discussion of the whole issue is slightly difficult as no-one ever seems to be able to define exactly what homebrew/twang flavour really tastes like.

Without wanting to be the tit who says 'go AG', I have only noticed my good AG brews tasting like the beer they are and they set a benchmark for what I look for in commercial brews (and then some commercial brews set a benchmark for me in return). Fresh grain, fresh hops, fresh yeast. All these things can be added to a kit and will improve it out of sight.

 

[felten]

All the minerals that are in the breweries water, would be concentrated down in the extract, they aren't devoid of minerals. So RO water is probably fine.

 

[manticle]

Good point. Not sure how it all works.

23 litres of bottled water adds a fair cost to a kit brew though so boiling is still a good option.

 

[Nick JD]

I know the solution to ridding your beer of kit twang.

 

[MHB]

All the minerals that are in the breweries water, would be concentrated down in the extract, they aren't devoid of minerals. So RO water is probably fine.

Yep

Wouldn't suggest spending a bomb on "water" just leave it in an open bucket overnight. If you're concerned about bugs a splash of one of the peroxide "Shield" type sanitisers would be fine.

MHB