Bottled water

[suckingthesyphontube]

just bottled coopers english bitter, made with bottled water, and 1KG of dextrose. This is only my second brew, (yep, that new,) and true to my sn, I "accidentally" drank some while starting the syphon, (several times,) and it had a slightly metalic taste. Was just wondering if that is anything to worry about? would hate to think I have 5 gallons of stank water

 

[luckyeddie]

I know that tap water can often have a metallic taste (dissolved iron and copper in acidic water) but I've never heard of it in bottled water. Was it the good stuff or Lidl own brand?

I'm buying bottled water at the moment - just for the 5 litre containers.

 

[suckingthesyphontube]

ty luckyeddie, was from morrisons, I wanted the 5l containers to, am using them to condition my beer, then I will re-bottle into glass in a week or so. Am also thinking of trying a ginger beer from scratch, so will be using one of the water bottles as a demijohn. Hopefully the bitter is ok, might have just tasted a bit iffy because it is so new, it was quite warm when I was transferring it it the bottles, and it seemed to fizz up a lot, so I am just going to keep my fingers crossed. I have 6 bottles of the bitter that I didn't prime, and went right to glass bottles, and I will try that at the weekend and let you know how it is :drink:

 

[luckyeddie]

I'm sure it'll be grand.

The plaggy bottles are a great idea, aren't they. I can easily get 8 of them into a fridge for conditioning instead of only 1 FV - that means that I can lager my Wit and perform a secondary fermentation on my Dark Strong Ale (which is beginning to taste very similar to Trappistes Rochefort 8 - yum yum) at the same time. Both will be happy at 2C - although the Dark only needs about 3 days of that treatment before bottling with additional yeast.

I think I need more airlocks.

 

[suckingthesyphontube]

sounds like a large fridge lol, and I got a mental image of all the food from the fridge piled up on the worktop. I am a little concerned as the water bottles do seem to be bulging out a lot, but I think it would probably take quite a bit to burst one. I recently got a couple of airlocks from Wilkinsons, am planning to get all my brewing stuff from there from now on, as you can order it all online, and get it delivered to your local store for you to pick up, and the delivery is free (only to the store, if you get it delivered to your address they charge.) I have found the prices are pretty much of a muchness, but it is the delivery charges that are a killer from most home brew shops, the only thing they don't seem to do is brewing sugar, but I have just been using dextrose from morrisons.

 

[crisparmour]

I have used 5l bottles for conditioning/dry hopping but I wouldn't chance it without an airlock. Unlike the PET pop bottles I don't think the collapsible bottles are pressure rated.

If you don't have airlocks, at the very least check the bottles once or twice a day and loosen the tops to blow out any excess gas.

 

[luckyeddie]

I have used 5l bottles for conditioning/dry hopping but I wouldn't chance it without an airlock. Unlike the PET pop bottles I don't think the collapsible bottles are pressure rated.

If you don't have airlocks, at the very least check the bottles once or twice a day and loosen the tops to blow out any excess gas.

This.

What you could get away with at a pinch is popping a cooking foil cap on, then fastening in place with an elastic band. We're not interested in carbonation at this stage - just getting rid of chill haze etc.

How did we get from bottled water to lagering in this thread? (If the lager was Budweiser, the water would be stronger and have more taste).

 

[doghouse gav]

suckingthesyphontube try "homebrew online". I get alot of stuff from there and they cap postage at £5.95. Order as much as you like!! :party:

 

[suckingthesyphontube]

I have used 5l bottles for conditioning/dry hopping but I wouldn't chance it without an airlock. Unlike the PET pop bottles I don't think the collapsible bottles are pressure rated.

If you don't have airlocks, at the very least check the bottles once or twice a day and loosen the tops to blow out any excess gas.

Ty crisparmour, but as I understand the process, when carbonating, you need the pressure don't you? The bottles seem to have survived so far, have just put one in the freezer to cool it for re-bottling to glass half litre bottles.

 

[suckingthesyphontube]

suckingthesyphontube try "homebrew online". I get alot of stuff from there and they cap postage at £5.95. Order as much as you like!! :party:

Ty doghouse gav, I got all my starter stuff from them, very reasonable prices, good company to deal with, but the problem is if you just need say bottle caps or an airlock, you still have to pay the full delivery cost, and it gets so you pay more for delivery than the cost of the items, so Wilkinsons is ideal, so long as you have one nearby, because you can get the odd item here and there and there is no delivery cost.

 

[suckingthesyphontube]

I have used 5l bottles for conditioning/dry hopping but I wouldn't chance it without an airlock. Unlike the PET pop bottles I don't think the collapsible bottles are pressure rated.

If you don't have airlocks, at the very least check the bottles once or twice a day and loosen the tops to blow out any excess gas.

This.

What you could get away with at a pinch is popping a cooking foil cap on, then fastening in place with an elastic band. We're not interested in carbonation at this stage - just getting rid of chill haze etc.

How did we get from bottled water to lagering in this thread? (If the lager was Budweiser, the water would be stronger and have more taste).

ty luckyeddie, I am carbonating, is that not a good idea in the 5l bottles?

 

[luckyeddie]

I have no idea what the pressure rating is on 5 litre water containers. I know that PET lemonade bottles will actually take a higher pressure than glass, but the 5 litre jobbies are designed just for water (although some types are carbonated, it's only sparingly so).

:hmm:

I'm going to lager mine in 5 litre containers but not pressurise. Then, after 3 weeks, I will add priming sugar, bottle in 2 litre PETs and move to the airing cupboard for 2-3 days before moving back to the fridge. It's my first lager of any form so I'm flying totally blind on this one.

 

[suckingthesyphontube]

I have no idea what the pressure rating is on 5 litre water containers. I know that PET lemonade bottles will actually take a higher pressure than glass, but the 5 litre jobbies are designed just for water (although some types are carbonated, it's only sparingly so).

:hmm:

I'm going to lager mine in 5 litre containers but not pressurise. Then, after 3 weeks, I will add priming sugar, bottle in 2 litre PETs and move to the airing cupboard for 2-3 days before moving back to the fridge. It's my first lager of any form so I'm flying totally blind on this one.

the 5l bottles seem to be pretty strong, looks like they are blown, as apposed to moulded, so no weak points. Will not risk using them more than once though. Lager looks pretty complicated, as I understand it, the idea of lagering is to extend the life of the beer? Might leave it a while before attempting a lager, but when I do, will have to be one with a bit of character, like a grolsh maybe. My yardstick on the drinkability of any beer is, if you can drink it warm, it is worth drinking, not that I would go out of my way to drink warm lager.

 

[luckyeddie]

To tell the truth, I don't really know much about lager. As far as I can tell, lagering a beer aids clarity, removes chill haze and makes the beer take cleaner, smoother etc - and that's not just the stuff that was invented in Pilsen that we call 'lager'.

Sorry I can't be of much help on this one.

As far as drinking a beer warm, nearly every beer has its own perfect temperature, but you seldom get the opportunity to drink it at that temperature, especially in pubs, where they might have three fridges and keep them all at around 6C. That might be fine for Bud Ice or some of the other 'making love in a canoe' brews, and it might be absolutely perfect for Chimay White, but Trappistes Rochfort 10 would lose its lovely toffee/fruity/oaky notes at anything below cellar temperature (12-13C).

Chimay Blue is a weird one though. Its recommended serving temperature is cellar ambient, yet it is often served at these teeth-chatteringly cold temperatures which we are all familiar with in pubs nowadays, and still tastes fantastic. It takes on a whole new character - fruity and refreshing - but at 9% it becomes dangerously more-ish.

 

[suckingthesyphontube]

Ty luckyeddie, I have noticed how temperature can have a huge effect on taste, but I do try to avoid drinking anything that has to be ice cold to be drinkable. I try drinking at room temp, and if it tastes like pond water, I figure that when it is ice cold, it will still taste like pond water, but I just wont notice. I used to drink pretty much anything, but had my eureka moment at an out door event one summer, where they had cans of beer floating in tepid water, in big black dustbins. They had all my usual tipples, but all pretty warm. I was amazed at how horrible they all tasted, and it occurred to me that I had been drinking slop for years, and never knew, so I now try to do the room temp test, before I will drink something :geek: