Gypsum

[Sandimas]

I occasionally use Gypsum in my AG beers in a non-scientific way: I read somewhere "1 teaspoon in the mash, another in the boil". I know there are better, more scientific ways to do water treatment, but I tried this.

Trouble is, I didn't note down when I used and and when I didn't. I have one pale ale in particular that has a bit of a weird taste, hard to describe, almost verging on TCP/infection but I don't think it's infected: been bottled over 3 months and there's no excess CO2.

Just wondering if Gypsum could have caused this off flavour? I will try another similar brew without at some point.

 

[strange-steve]

2 teaspoons of gypsum in a 20L batch adds about 220ppm of sulphate, and your tap water could already be high. The max recommended concentration is about 350ppm so it's possible you are close to that, which can cause harsh, mineraly or sulphurous off flavours.

 

[BeerCat]

My thoughts on the band aid flavour are its probably a stressed fermentation. I sampled a few of my failures with a friend last week and they were not good at all. Then he gave me one of his and i nearly threw up. Was worse than my 3 put together. The only reason we had a sip was because i gave him all the bottles. :)
Read up on Steves excellent thread about water treatment here http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=64822

 

[Sandimas]

My thoughts on the band aid flavour are its probably a stressed fermentation.

Good idea, that got me thinking.....I looked back at my notes and I used an old Coopers yeast from my stash in the fridge (I hate to throw things away): I haven't made a Coopers kit since Jan so it could have been that or even older.

No point keeping kit yeasts now with the price and quality of CML. I'll try a small-volume brew of the same recipe but without the Gypsum and with some CML yeast. :thumb: