Chlorophenols from tapwater?

[Rowang]

I am doing a series of brews for my wedding and have just moved to a new area (Walthamstow, NE London).

The first 3 brews were done with bottled water, all fine.

The latter 2 were done with 80% bottled, 20% tap - as I had run out of bottled. The tap wasn't treated/boiled in any way.

The final 2 are in the secondary with dry hops, and have a chlorophenolic off taste. They havnt dropped bright yet, and I know that US-05 has some pretty funky flavours itself.

I wonder am I just being neurotic and tasting when I shouldn't (when I normally wouldn't) because theres a bit more pressure for these brews to be ok, OR could the 20% tap water (probably even less) contribute enough chloramine to make my beer taste like shit? Ive gotten away with it fine before, but that was in a different London borough.

[Simonh82]

I think you are being paranoid. I can't speak for the water in Walthamstow but I use 100% tap water from south of the river in SW18 and I've never noticed a chlorine taste in the beer. Thames water say that they use chlorine in the water but they do not appear to use chloramine. There website says that if you can detect a chlorine odour in your water, leave it to stand for 24 hours and the chlorine will evaporate. Boiling the water/wort would drive off any chlorine much quicker, so I'd be staggered if you had any problems with the finished beer.

Good luck with the wedding. I'm sure people will love your beer.

[Wonkydonkey]

Camdem tabs. 1/2 a tab in 25lts

It works, drives the reaction of chlorine to salt and SO4 iirc

I'm sure someone else will be along soon, to chime in

[Rowang]

I think you are being paranoid. I can't speak for the water in Walthamstow but I use 100% tap water from south of the river in SW18 and I've never noticed a chlorine taste in the beer. Thames water say that they use chlorine in the water but they do not appear to use chloramine. There website says that if you can detect a chlorine odour in your water, leave it to stand for 24 hours and the chlorine will evaporate. Boiling the water/wort would drive off any chlorine much quicker, so I'd be staggered if you had any problems with the finished beer.

Good luck with the wedding. I'm sure people will love your beer.

Yeah I suspect I am being paranoid TBH.. theres a definite phenolic off taste in one, but I am tasting it VERY prematurely..because Im paranoid about it..!

I suppose I should leave it alone/let it do its thing/not tip it down the sink and burn the house down

[AnthonyUK]

...I know that US-05 has some pretty funky flavours itself...

You may be confusing this with another yeast as US-05 is pretty clean at least as long as the temps don't get out of control. S-04 maybe?

[Kev888]

Quite a lot of people routinely brew without treating tap water for chlorine/chloramines and get no problems. Though obviously it depends on the particular water so "I don't" or "I do" type replies are likely meaningless unless they are in the same water supply area. But at least it goes to show that the campden tablet or sodium met isn't necessarily a requirement in all water supply regions.

Especially having diluted yours so much, I'd have to think theres a fairly good chance you are just tasting early flavours from the fermentation, so don't panic yet. Fermentations can throw off all sorts of weird aromas and flavours. Though if you used bleach to clean equipment, that can also be a cause if not rinsed sufficiently, and only you can assess that.

It sounds like this wasn't planned, but FWIW chlorine/chloramine levels in tap water can change and their reactions with the malt can occur even if the water doesn't taste noticeably of chlorine. So given the minute cost and effort involved in treating for them, I personally wouldn't advocate intentionally not bothering unless very confident it isn't necessary.

[orlando]

Much more likely to be a yeast artefact. Make sure you give it plenty of time to "clear up" before racking off. A good 3 days after FG should suffice, don't be tempted to skip this to save time.