[69franx]

I have no idea about Portland water, but you should get it tested, Ward labs often gets a plug here, and then Martin's Bru'NWater can help you get where you want to be. Different styles will be better with different additions. Good luck with it and keep asking questions 

[klickitat jim]

This might help till you can get your own test done. I'd be treating any city water with camden to eliminate chlorine.

[HoosierBrew]

This might help till you can get your own test done. I'd be treating any city water with camden to eliminate chlorine.

+1, Beat me to it on the campden. Doesn't matter how good your local water is if you put chlorophenols in your beer.

[leejoreilly]

Also as a general rule if your water tastes good it will make good beer. Water additives may improve things but not as dramatically as I suspect you are seeking.

Jack, I agree almost everything you've said, but I'd rephrase this part to "As a general rule, if your water tastes bad, it will make bad beer". I'm not sure that the converse is reliably true. Better to test it, use Brunwater, make adjustments, and see if your beer gets better. For some brewers, the results will be startling; for others, not so much. But it's usually worth the effort to see.

[brewinhard]

Not really part of your direct problem, but rinsing PBW with hot pre-boiled water is not necessary. Using PBW at warmer water temps can help for really stuck on gunk from fermentation, but rinsing WELL with cool water is just fine.

I have to disagree a bit here.  If you rinse PBW with hot (or hotter) water you will most definitely remove more PBW left behind then with cool water.  One does not need to boil it first, but hot water is by far more effective.  Just what I have observed when using this product. 

[Stonecutter]

I went and bought some liquid lactic acid, calcium chloride, and gypsum. I'm planning on brewing a Belgian Tripel next week, and I'll be adding about 4g (each) of the CaCl2 and the Gypsum, and 0.5 tsp of the lactic acid to the mash water. Hopefully that will get me to a nice pH of 5.4 (based on Bru'n Water and Brewer's Friend calculations).

Beyond my mineral/acid adjustments, I'll be implementing the updated cleaning/sanitizing methods discussed above to avoid any residual oxidizing agent entering the beer, as well as ensuring better sanitizing.

Another minor change I'll be making is to add flavor and aroma hop additions (in my previous 6 batches I have only used 60min bittering hops) to see if more malt-hop balance helps with my flavor profile.

Lastly, I will see what I can do to modulate fermentation temperature. For a tripel, it probably won't be quite as crucial to keep the temperature down, but I still might try the wet-towel+fan or water-bath method.

Thanks for all of the helpful feedback, everyone!

[HoosierBrew]

I went and bought some liquid lactic acid, calcium chloride, and gypsum. I'm planning on brewing a Belgian Tripel next week, and I'll be adding about 4g (each) of the CaCl2 and the Gypsum, and 0.5 tsp of the lactic acid to the mash water. Hopefully that will get me to a nice pH of 5.4 (based on Bru'n Water and Brewer's Friend calculations).

Beyond my mineral/acid adjustments, I'll be implementing the updated cleaning/sanitizing methods discussed above to avoid any residual oxidizing agent entering the beer, as well as ensuring better sanitizing.

Another minor change I'll be making is to add flavor and aroma hop additions (in my previous 6 batches I have only used 60min bittering hops) to see if more malt-hop balance helps with my flavor profile.

Lastly, I will see what I can do to modulate fermentation temperature. For a tripel, it probably won't be quite as crucial to keep the temperature down, but I still might try the wet-towel+fan or water-bath method.

Thanks for all of the helpful feedback, everyone!

First off, you're definitely going in the right direction. But that tripel needs temp control. Big beers generate more fermentation heat (more sugars to generate more exothermic reaction). If you ferment a beer that big at room/closet temp, the heat generated will have the beer fermenting @ 75F+. That = banana bomb, fusel headache disappointment. Dude, rubbermaid tub 1/2 full of water, chill the beer to low 60s, add fermenter to tub with 2 frozen bottles, change twice a day. On day 3 take beer out of the tub and let sit in a closet for a week. Afterward, take it to the warmest room of the house and let sit until a month total (from brew day) has passed. Verify FG, then package. It's easy and it works !


EDIT - Please don't take criticism from my advice. Wasn't meant that way. You are absorbing a lot of info at once - we've all been there. It's just that fermentation temp control is HUGE to making good beer. There is nothing more critical, in all honesty. Denny used the same tub method for years and made amazing beers. I did it for a couple or three years, too, with great results. It works well, cheaply.

[JT]

Completely agree with Hoosier.  If you want to try a beer that doesn't need close temp control, try a saison.  Putting your bucket/carboy in a tub of water and a couple frozen water bottles is probably the best method to keep it cool short of a dedicated fermentation chamber.  I made far too many batches of beer without temp control when I first started brewing.  Lots of plastic and hot alcohol off flavors. 
I'd probably rank temperature as the number 1 off-flavor contributor, even above sanitation.  I've used a clean but not sanitized container before (by mistake) and gotten away with it, but any time I fermented too hot for a yeast strain I had off-flavors every single time.
IMO, the 3 biggest factors to making good beer are: temperature, yeast health and cleanliness/sanitation.  In at number 4 I'd rank mash pH for all - grain brewers.  Mineral content of the water would be way down the list, below grist composition. 
Good luck with the next batch! 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[santoch]

+1 - Temp control is king.  You make wort.  Yeast make beer.
Your job is to provide them with the proper materials, environment, and cell count to properly perform the job.

Also, see if you can find an experienced palate to help you identify exactly what is wrong. http://www.bjcp.org/apps/reports/proctors.php might help you find an experienced beer judge near you who can help. The BJCP is a volunteer organization and the vast majority of the people on that list would be happy to help.  Just contact a few of them and I'm sure you'll get a positive response.

Also, if there's a homebrew club near you, they can help troubleshoot these problems in person.  Tasting the beers and discussing the processes in person is a lot more effective than doing it in text messages over the internet.

HTH-
Steve

[toby]

Jack, I agree almost everything you've said, but I'd rephrase this part to "As a general rule, if your water tastes bad, it will make bad beer". I'm not sure that the converse is reliably true.

As a matter of fact, Martin presented at NHC that it is not reliably true.  Some things we may like as taste in drinking water may not be good for beer (or at least certain styles).

My wife learned a similar lesson with a little fish she got at work a long time ago.  She was cleaning the little bowl and when she refilled it, she used bottled water (Dasani IIRC) to refill it because she had it handy.  Fish didn't make it another 24 hours.  The minerals added to the water for taste were incompatible with the fish.

+1 - Temp control is king.  You make wort.  Yeast make beer.
Your job is to provide them with the proper materials, environment, and cell count to properly perform the job.

Plus a billion.  Temp control is always the first priority I stress to new brewers (well, other than cleaning and sanitation).  Even a swamp cooler is better than nothing.  Basic water treatment (as in treating for chlorine/chloramine) is second.  You can get 'fancy' after you have your process down, but those two (three) things will make big leaps in quality for one's beer.

Also, if there's a homebrew club near you, they can help troubleshoot these problems in person.  Tasting the beers and discussing the processes in person is a lot more effective than doing it in text messages over the internet.

This too.  It's always better to be able to discuss it with someone.  Most judges will make pretty good educated guesses, but we can never be really sure unless we discuss it with the brewer.  I'm amazed sometimes by the feedback I get.  lol