mtb
Beer Bod
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I posted a status about this earlier but there is some debate regarding the source of my "astringency" so time to start a thread.
I brewed a few batches with rainwater, thinking at the time it was town water coming from my tap. Because I thought it was town water I added acids & minerals accordingly to bring it in line with my target water profile. The beer - and subsequent batches brewed on the same day - had the same dry, puckering, teabag taste that seem to go hand-in-hand with astringency. I want to emphasize here that I brewed two separate batches with different ingredients, yeast and hops. They were brewed on the same day with different water.
My town water is 7.7pH, rainwater averages around 5.5pH according to Google with some variation in local pollutants etc, so by adjusting rainwater with minerals & acids believing it was town water, I essentially reduced the pH of rainwater (ph ~5.5) to a much lower level because I believed it was 7.7. I can only assume the mash pH of the brews were below 5, or close to.
Thoughts on the above? Does this sound correct? Low mash pH isn't well covered in online articles but I can only assume it's as problematic as a high pH.
I brewed a few batches with rainwater, thinking at the time it was town water coming from my tap. Because I thought it was town water I added acids & minerals accordingly to bring it in line with my target water profile. The beer - and subsequent batches brewed on the same day - had the same dry, puckering, teabag taste that seem to go hand-in-hand with astringency. I want to emphasize here that I brewed two separate batches with different ingredients, yeast and hops. They were brewed on the same day with different water.
My town water is 7.7pH, rainwater averages around 5.5pH according to Google with some variation in local pollutants etc, so by adjusting rainwater with minerals & acids believing it was town water, I essentially reduced the pH of rainwater (ph ~5.5) to a much lower level because I believed it was 7.7. I can only assume the mash pH of the brews were below 5, or close to.
Thoughts on the above? Does this sound correct? Low mash pH isn't well covered in online articles but I can only assume it's as problematic as a high pH.