Chlorine & Chloramine Treatment

[fizzix]

Took up beer brewing recently and found my municipal water causes a sour apple and vinegar taste that time doesn't resolve.
My brewer cohorts reviewed my city water report and blame chloramine, which doesn't boil away like chlorine.
Resorted to bottled water and campden tablets (bottled water can have chlorine and chloramine in it, too), and so far
the beer is a lot better.

I just use untreated city water for distilling and it makes one wonder why my liquor comes out so good!

Anyone here bother to treat their tap water for chlorine/chloramine and found it to be remarkably better for distilling?
I'm going to toss a campden tablet in the distilling water regardless from now on. Can't hurt.

[still_stirrin]

This is reprinted from a “MoreBeer” document:

Removing Chloramines
If you do decide that you need to dechloraminate your water, you have a couple of options.

Campden tablets: I have found that, for home brewers, the easiest way to dispose of chloramines is to treat the water with Campden tablets, which are typically used as a preservative by winemakers. The Campden tablets I use (supplied by L.D. Carlson, Kent, Ohio, and sold by many homebrew suppliers) contain approximately 695 mg of potassium metabisulfite, sometimes referred to as “metabite.” This chemical reduces chloramine to ammonium and chloride ions, both of which are beneficial to beer in the quantities generated by this treatment. (The ammonium ion nourishes the yeast, and the chloride ion enhances the drinker’s sensation of roundness and fullness in the beer.)

How much? The required dose is simple to calculate: Take twice the chloramine level in the water, add the chlorine level, and divide by 6. This is the number of tablets required to treat 20 gallons. Scale this value according to how many gallons need to be treated.

For example, if I were to brew with the local water, which has 3 mg/L chloramine, I would need one tablet per 20 gallons. It is rare that chloramine levels will be above 3 mg/L, but they occasionally are. It is best to test (see the box “Testing the Waters,” below); what the water authority tells you may be a target or average value, not the actual level.

My experiments have shown that perhaps 20–30% more potassium metabisulfite than calculated should be used to be on the safe side. This represents a modest increase in the amount of by-products. Also, be aware that not all Campden tablets weigh 695 mg, nor are they all, apparently, potassium metabisulfite; some are sodium metabisulfite.

Weigh the Campden tablets. (If a lab balance is not available, weigh lots of them on a kitchen scale or reloading scale and divide by the number of tablets.) If you are uncertain as to whether they are the potassium or sodium salt, have the supplier check with the wholesaler, or just assume they are potassium. If you guess wrong, you will be adding 17% more bisulfite than you need — not a significant amount.

The other option is to filter the water through catalyzed carbon (more than simple activated carbon). Search Google for a whole house catalyzed carbon filter. And most reverse osmosis drinking water filters will also remove the chloramines because they utilize pre- and post-stage carbon filters.

As stated, chloramine removal is not as easy as removing chlorine from water.
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[Single Malt Yinzer]

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[kiwi Bruce]

Took up beer brewing recently and found my municipal water causes a sour apple and vinegar taste that time doesn't resolve.

One of the chemists at Coors brewing did the research on this taste phenomenon, it came down to a simple syphoning mistake...if you used your mouth to start the syphon your can introduce a wild yeast, from your mouth, into your wort. If you didn't use a syphon starter it could just be that.

[fizzix]

Never syphoned with my mouth.
Except that one time in the 70s, but I needed the gasoline.

To reiterate, I've got the beer under control. Just wondering if anyone treats their distilling for chlorine or chloramine.

[rparody]

I wanted to come back to this. Does anyone have an issues with flavoring by adding chloramined water for dilution and then redistilling? Just curious.

[kiwi Bruce]

You can ask from your local municipality what the chemical is that they chlorinate with, but most in the US (most of the world) have moved away from the liquid hypochlorite and are using the solid Chlorine Dioxide (Sodium Chlorite) The reason is, with hypochlorite the chlorine stays in the water supply and can, over time, eat into the valves and equipment at the municipalities water pumping stations, and it's dangerous to handle. Solid Chlorine Dioxide looses an oxygen molecule (this does the sanitizing work) and turns to common salt, which is not a problem for anyone anymore. The W.H.O. have been advancing this for a while now because it's safer than using liquid bleach, it's very effective and it's cheap ! So between you and I and the gate post, I don't think we have anything to worry about anymore...which is good news !

[seabass]

I used to use Camden tablets. It worked great. Now I have a carbon filter, so I just filter all my brewing water. Chlorine/chloromine will give you all kinds of weird off flavors. I used to get the band-aid phenols. No idea if it would make it to a distillate, but I'm not willing to try and see.