Acetaldehyde is driving me bonkers

[MitchK]

Isn't the big 8 water pure RO water? Might not have the required minerals for yeast health. I would pick up a bag of nutrient and try adding a bit of that each time.

I think 50ppm calcium is generally considered a healthy baseline too, but I have definitely gotten away with plain Halifax tap water which has much less.

[Celiacbrew]

A cheap way to diagnose through treatment would be to add zinc to your next brew.

http://byo.com/body/item/1475-the-big-stink" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Buccaneer]

Isn't the big 8 water pure RO water? Might not have the required minerals for yeast health. I would pick up a bag of nutrient and try adding a bit of that each time.

I think 50ppm calcium is generally considered a healthy baseline too, but I have definitely gotten away with plain Halifax tap water which has much less.

I stopped using the Big 8 water in favour of RO, which I then build up. Nutrients are probably a good idea.

A cheap way to diagnose through treatment would be to add zinc to your next brew.

http://byo.com/body/item/1475-the-big-stink" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And another suggestion for nutrients. That article seems like a good source of information.

I'm going to try a festa brew and see what happens, then proceed from there.

[MitchK]

Yeah, if you get the problem with festa brew it can't be your water, which makes it an excellent diagnostic.

The only other thing I can think of is infection.

[Buccaneer]

Kegged the Festa Brew kit today. No acetaldehyde that I can detect. Normally it would be quite noticeable.

So, that leaves at least a couple of options. Water/yeast nutrients or something on the hot side.

Anyone else here use nutrients when building up RO water?

[Jimmy]

Kegged the Festa Brew kit today. No acetaldehyde that I can detect. Normally it would be quite noticeable.

So, that leaves at least a couple of options. Water/yeast nutrients or something on the hot side.

Anyone else here use nutrients when building up RO water?

Sometimes.

I was using yeast nutrient, but have stopped and have noticed no negative effect on my beers.

All of my beers are brewed with RO, however, I do build them up based on the style of beer that I'm brewing.