Byran
Well-Known Member
Not one to be a nark on the scientific side of brewing, but I have a real problem with the chalky and salty taste of beer with additives in it.
Obviously there are definite benefits and often a need for water modification, but I have been to boutique breweries and drank commercial beer that tasted like muddy water. Personal opinion of course but I have tried similar beer styles that did not taste like chalk and can only assume that the brewers might have put in too much? Surely they know what they are doing..........
I have not done any water modification as yet to any of my brews but have friends who do with every brew.
As such I could say that my brews are all a "control" of sorts as they are not tampered with the beers are all good but there are definitely problems with haze and smoothness. I only use Sydney tap water as I really dont have the time to bother with filtering ect.
It has a relatively boring amount of base salts and minerals in it compared to what is required in the literature so I think its a good platform to work with. The only main problem of course being the monochloramine they use for purification which is up to 1.42mg/L in the prospect filtration plant system where my tap water comes from.
You can smell it as the water heats to mash temp but I cant taste it in my beer so I assume it is boiled out?
As an observation I am going to do all of my previous recipes as normal but am going to add water modifiers and monitor all of the following:
Mash PH
Salts and adjuncts to adjust for style
Bittering elements
Malt elements
Clarity
Yeast health
Flavour profile
Smoothness
EBC
Ill see how much difference water adjustments actually make to my recipes and hopefully make a better drop too!
Obviously there are definite benefits and often a need for water modification, but I have been to boutique breweries and drank commercial beer that tasted like muddy water. Personal opinion of course but I have tried similar beer styles that did not taste like chalk and can only assume that the brewers might have put in too much? Surely they know what they are doing..........
I have not done any water modification as yet to any of my brews but have friends who do with every brew.
As such I could say that my brews are all a "control" of sorts as they are not tampered with the beers are all good but there are definitely problems with haze and smoothness. I only use Sydney tap water as I really dont have the time to bother with filtering ect.
It has a relatively boring amount of base salts and minerals in it compared to what is required in the literature so I think its a good platform to work with. The only main problem of course being the monochloramine they use for purification which is up to 1.42mg/L in the prospect filtration plant system where my tap water comes from.
You can smell it as the water heats to mash temp but I cant taste it in my beer so I assume it is boiled out?
As an observation I am going to do all of my previous recipes as normal but am going to add water modifiers and monitor all of the following:
Mash PH
Salts and adjuncts to adjust for style
Bittering elements
Malt elements
Clarity
Yeast health
Flavour profile
Smoothness
EBC
Ill see how much difference water adjustments actually make to my recipes and hopefully make a better drop too!
