Overly tart hoppy homebrew?

What yeast? I've had tart results with Wyeast Northwest Ale.

 

this could make it tart
what was your fermentation temp?

 

Maybe the problem comes from the fact you have used distilled water, there was not enough calcium available for yeast,just thinking...Is this the first time you brew using distilled water?

 

I'm curious on this as well. I just made ten gallons of dunklewiezen. In one bucket we used WLP300 and in the other we used WLP351. The 300 turned out great, but the 351 is tart. We were very cautious so I don't think it is an infection. I'm wondering if someone answers your question if it will answer mine.

 

How long was it in the fermenter before you packaged it and sampled it? I'm wondering if you are noticing acetaldehyde (green apple); could mean that the yeast still had some work to do. Also, some people claim to get a peachy flavor from the Chico yeasts and some subset of this group says it is most prominent in the S-05 version. Are either of these descriptors consistent with your tartness?

 

DING DING DING. Distilled water isn't a good base for brewing. Use bottled spring water or filtered tap water.

 

But this was an extract batch. The extract would have contained the same mineral profile as the original mash/boil.

 

Water is the largest component of your beer. If you decide to use just pure H2O with nothing else in it, I'd imagine it would vastly over-accentuate the other flavors. With something as bright and lemony as citra hops, I could see that combination becoming too much.

 

Yes, it is important to have minerals (calcium, etc) in the wort (for flavor and other reasons). What I'm saying is that the OP's wort did. This was not a 'pure H2O' batch. All the minerals that were in the water that the extract manufacterer used to mash and boil the grains remain in the final extract.

 

I don't know for sure, as I don't know the process manufacturer's use in making malt extract, but I'd imagine they must do something to limit the mineral content of their extracts. Otherwise, using extract with regular mineral water would give you double the mineral content of a regular beer, making it taste.... well, minerally.

 

They don't. (And how would they be able to anyway?) In fact, extract manufacturers often tout the mineral content as a benefit of the product. Here's how Briess makes extract...

http://www.briess.com/food/Processes/nstep.php

Everything I have seen about extract production looks pretty much like the above. I've never seen any mention of removing or otherwise limiting minerals.

 

I agree.

In answer to Pangea's comment about doubling the mineral content, I will guess that Briess and other extract makers avoid using any sort of extreme water when making extract, knowing that additional minerals will be added by the consumer's water source. Because the product is already mashed, factors that influence residual alkalinity are mostly academic. Factors that influence flavor, like sulfate-chloride ratio, are probably balanced in the extract.

 

It could be a number of different things. Fermentation temp could be the culprit, but it sounds like yours was within the acceptable range. The one thing that stuck out at me was that you said all the hops were added with 10 min left? Did you add any for bittering at 60 min?

 

How much hops did you add at 10 minutes? 40 IBUs all at 10 minutes must have been a pretty good handful...

 

If you are just adding spring water or mineral water, do you have an idea of what you are putting into your beer?

 

Yes... water... and minerals.

In all seriousness, though, I misspoke when I used the term "mineral water". I wouldn't use something that sodium heavy. Though it might aid in replicating some of the "hard water" beers of jolly old England, like a Burton IPA. On the contrary, mixing regular filtered tap or spring water with 50% distilled water gives you a make-shift soft water profile, in the ballpark of a Pilsner (from what I've heard, never tried it).

Come to think of it, maybe that's what happened. If the only mineral content in the beer was from the extract, then it was probably pretty "soft", which would minimize the bitterness but leave the tart, acidic sort of "zing" you get from American hops like citra and the like.

But yeah, to answer your question, filtered tap water and regular bottled water work just fine. I mean, sure, if you're a real nut you could start with distilled water, add mineral mixtures to it to attain a certain profile, then brew, but that seems really excessive. And the minerals are necessary for a healthy mash and happy yeasties.