Chlorinated water

Q: I recently moved from Montana to Salem, Oregon. When I brewed in Montana I used well water for my brews and there was never a problem — they were wonderful beers. Now that I am an “urban” brewer, I seem to have too many instances of beers fermenting with dry yeast that will not take off — the fermentations just sit there, never going into kräusen overnight (like they did in Montana). Could it be chlorine in my water? It may be my imagination but I think I even smell chlorine in the shower. I have tried adding a Campden tablet to my brewing water to little effect. I have thought of brewing with bottled water as a test to see if the local city provided stuff is the problem. Do you think this is a good approach, or do you see some other brewing aspect I am missing? How can I, other than giving up my job and moving back to Montana, get back to brewing wonderful beers?
— Dale Engstrom • Salem, Oregon

A: You are one of those patients who comes in to the doctor’s office with a cold and already have your mind made up about the cause! Since you are convinced that you are stunting the activity of your yeast with chlorine from the water, that is really all I have to work with to help you out of your dilemma.

To paraphrase your question: you were doing just fine in Montana brewing great beers. The Big Sky State apparently was providing you with a great environment and water supply for your homebrewing hobbies. Then you moved to another beautiful state, one that also has its unfair share of great breweries, and the brewing wheels now seem to roll less evenly. If you do have chlorinated water, and use the chlorinated water to hydrate dry yeast before pitching, this could have an adverse affect on your yeast. Fortunately, that problem is easy to solve, as you suggest, by using bottled water, or water treated like bottled water that is transported in something a bit friendlier than a plastic bottle, to hydrate your yeast.

If your water is heavily chlorinated and your shower smells like a swimming pool you might want to check with your local water utility to determine if there is something unusual happening down at the water works. Most commercial brewers who use city water for brewing use some sort of chlorine removal method before using this type of water for brewing. Some brewers use carbon filters and some use UV lights to remove chlorine from water. At home, carbon filtration is probably your best bet. Campden tablets can also be used to convert chlorine into chloride, but it seems as though that method has not helped you.

I am sure you have changed more than your water when you moved from Montana to Oregon. But before you consider other problems you should satisfy your curiosity about the water. It’s pretty obvious you are looking for an excuse to visit your former stomping grounds, so this is your excuse. Go back to Montana for a weekend and when you return to Salem bring enough water with you to brew your next batch of homebrew. If the problem is solved you now know that a road trip is required before each brew.

But what could be in the water in Montana that could actually help yeast? My guess is zinc. Zinc concentrations in wort between 10–20 mg/L is beneficial to yeast because zinc is an enzymatic co-factor. A brief survey of publications about water tells me that it is entirely possible that your water in Montana may have been a source of zinc. That may be a far-fetched guess, but it does lead to a brewing suggestion: add some zinc nutrient to your homebrew. The zinc nutrient I use is called Servomyces, but there are other zinc sources you can add to wort, such as zinc chloride.

When you moved you probably made more changes to your homebrewing routine than merely changing the water, however, and my first guess is that you may have changed homebrew supply shops. It could be that the yeast you are now using is somehow different. Packaged yeast, whether liquid or dried, has a shelf life. Perhaps you are using older yeast. Another possible difference in your two brewing locales is temperature. I hate to be short on ideas. I hope something here helps because it is looking like you may have to return to Big Sky Country if you cannot make your yeast happy!