Chlorinated Water

General Homebrew Discussion
1

Some of the posts I’ve read in other forums state that chlorinated water added to the wort is an absolute killer for the taste.

I’ve done partial boils and added tapwater to the fermenter to get the required volume without noticeable problems. Other people have tasted my brews including one guy that has drank in almost every brewpub in Chicago, IL and no-one has complained.

According to my most recent annual water report, chlorine was listed at 1.47 ppm. So far I’ve been brewing ales in the spectrum from red ales to stouts.

I’d welcome some discussion on this.

Thanks

2

My understanding is that the chlorophenols can be noticeable in beer even when the chlorine is not noticeable in the water used to brew it.  It is so easy to treat the water, so why not?  I use RO and build from there, so no chlorine is in my water.

3

Some people are more sensitive than others.  I can usually detect it, and when I can, it’s a serious fault and I won’t want to drink it at all.  Best to play it safe and get it out of there.  All you need is 1/4 Campden tablet per 5 gallons of water, knocks out the chlorine instantly.  It is a worthwhile investment, the $5 or whatever it costs for dang near a lifetime supply of Campden.

4

I agree with Dave; sensitivity does vary. A few years ago, I was generally pleased with my brews, but felt that “something” wasn’t quite right with 'em. I had some of the better tasters and judges in my Club sample them, and was advised to treat for chlorimine (sp?). Tossing a campden tab in my water the evening before brew day solved that problem.

5

Chlorophenols take time to develop. If you are burning through batches weeks after you brew then you may be drinking faster than chlorophenols can form.

6

Interesting.  I seen the opposite experience, where they seem to be in the beer as soon as it’s done.

7

Ditto.  When it’s there, it’s there, and no amount of aging ever makes it disappear either.

8

perhaps the difference between chlorophenols from chlorine in the brewing water v. from infection?

9

I’m very sensitive to it and can’t drink a beer with it in it.  That being said… Most people I will tell I detect it if they honestly want to know what I think of their beer… Some people will say they want that honest opinion but through experience you know they don’t… so I just lie to them (only happens with a select few individuals).  Then there is the 3rd group where you maybe don’t know the people so well and they seem very excited about their beer and you don’t want to crush them… and they just gave you the beer to try… not necessarily to evaluate.

10

I suggest you directly ask your municipal water dept. what form of chlorine they use.

If they use free chlorine (as does my municipal water dept.), it is easily stripped out with a simple charcoal filter.

But if they use chloramine, which is a more stable compound, you should go the campden tablet route.

11

I used to get chlorophenols really bad in my early beers when I was using untreated tap water and chlorine-based cleaners. The chlorophenols would start to get really foul after about a month in the bottle. When I stopped using chlorine-based cleaners (which I probably wasn’t rinsing enough) the chlorophenols lessened so it’s definitely possible they were there in the beer after the mash but I didn’t have the palette at the time to pick them up. It may be the case then that chlorine added after the boil through cleaners takes longer to form because a new phenol source from yeast fermentation is in far less quantities than the malt phenols in the mash.

All I know for sure is once I switched to star-san and using RO water my beers stopped developing chlorophenols.

12

You are better off telling them that the flaw is there.  That way they don’t keep bringing you flawed beers to try.  You can be a little diplomatic and stretch the truth a little, but turn it into a chance to educate them - “Overall I like your beer though I’m picking up a little bit of a low-level phenolic note.  Can you tell me about what you do to keep chlorine out of your beer?”.

13

A tip I learned on the B&V several years ago has made chlorine removal even easier than using Campden tablets.

Add a half teaspoon of peroxide to 5 gallons of brewing water, swirl it around, and the chlorine is volatilized and gone.

14

Does that work for chlorimine too, or just chlorine?

15

Exactly what I was thinking. I’ve had chlorophenols from bad keg lines.

16

Yes, Campden works for both forms of chlorinated water.  There is hypochlorite, and then there is chloramine.  Campden works instantly for both kinds.

17

Yeah, I use campden for my “chloramined” water. I was asking about the peroxide.

18

Good question!  I was in on the discussion chumley mentioned on B&V, but I don’t recall.  If I was guessing, I’d guess that only chlorine was discussed because it likely was long enough ago that chloramine wasn’t much used (chumley and I have been around on forums for a LONG time).  But you should PM him and see if he remembers.

19

Peroxide only works on chlorinated water, not chloramine.

Here is the link to the original thread.

http://hbd.org/discus/messages/40327/41985.html?1180886577

Re-reading this, I see the original determined amount was 0.83 tsp per 5 gallons of chlorinated water.  I rounded down as my city water is pretty clean and they don’t use that much chlorine.

20

What you’re describing is probably contamination from a wild yeast, not chlorophenols from chlorine or chloramine.  Based on what you’ve said I would bet that your old cleaning and sanitizing regime wasn’t knocking out all the competing wild yeast.  Any phenolic off flavor that increases over time is due to yeast or bacterial activity.