What’s your procedure for chilling your wort down to pitching temp? I know that if you let it sit for too long, it can pick up some nasty stuff. I’ve outlined one of my favorite tricks when doing extract with the bottled water below.
On brew day, pick up 6 gallons of artesian water (not distilled, that takes out too much of the good stuff in the water). Put 3 gallons in the freezer when you start brewing (or, if you can plan ahead, put 3 gallons in the fridge the night before). Don’t let the water freeze though. Then, make your wort as you normally would. After you’ve finished your boil, you should have about 2 gallons left. Add the 3 cold gallons of bottled water to your wort, take a temp reading, and pitch when you’re at your target temp.
I’ve been wondering why my beer has been consistently… consistent… this is truly wonderful information, thanks a lot for the good tips!!!
after i’m done with my mead. i will have to do things the right way with filtered water. I started to wonder if it was the priming sugar, i was about to resort to Co2 in a keg to get away from bottle carbonating. that could have gotten expensive…
Someday you’ll want to start kegging, if only to avoid bottling. ;D
Kegging will not stop off flavors if they are in your beer. It won’t matter what container you put it in , it will still be off a bit. Use these suggestions and then ask questions. The folks on this board will you out with anything.
I agree that the water is the likely problem here. Keep in mind that “filtering” with activated charcoal isn’t always reliable for removing chlorine and chloramines. It has to do with surface area and contact times. Most people just blast water through a filter…
Definitely invest in campden tablets or buy the water. Many of us get the RO water from the store and then build it up.
I had the same problem as you’ve described with extract kits being done with boiled tap water (filtered, of course)–still had that phenolic character. Really annoying to get that result when you’ve invested the time and money to make the beer.
I didnt see anything in the above about proper aeration. How are you aerating your wort? You might want to invest in a Mix-Stir rod that uses a drill to whip air into the wort. Just my 2-cents worth.