Mineral Adjustments After Fermentation - Brewing Salts Experiment
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- čas přidán 28. 01. 2020
- This week, we take a finished beer and add water salts to it to change the profile of the base water to see how it affects the beer. We're making mineral adjustment after fermentation in this brewing salts experiment.
We took samples of a recent lager that John made and dosed in 100 ppm of either chloride or sulfate. We did this by making a 5000 ppm solution of calcium chloride or calcium sulfate and then diluting them 50-fold into the finished beer. We diluted the concentrated stock by putting 2 ml of stock into 100 ml of finished beer.
We both noted subtle but noticeable differences in the doctored finished beer samples. The malt profile was indeed a little more softer with the chloride than in the control sample. The addition of sulfate was a little more pronounced leading to a crisper hop finish that lingered a bit longer than in the control sample.
This was an interesting experiment and is one that should be repeated on a handful of beer styles to see how such an experiment can help guide you when rebrewing recipes.
Let us know what you think in the comments!
Cheers!
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Back in the 60s I remember my Father always had a salt shaker for my Uncle Vince. I always thought it was for a better Head. Thanks for the Information.
Thanks!
Omg, my grandpa and his friends would add salt to their strohls. He went so far as to have a shaker on him at all times. I never thought about it until you mentioned it was folklore, haha!
We saw it too! -Thanks for the memory - John
This looks like a great experiment. I definitely learned something here. Thank you! Cheers!
Thanks Wrecked!
great video guys can`t wait to try it
thanks!
Fantastic idea. You dudes rock
Thanks for the support! -Mike
Never seen this experiment. Great idea!
Thanks!
good points and tips. i would like to see more of this type of brewing tricks
We will work on it! Cheers! Mike
What an interesting concept Dudes. I've only added salts to the mash and/or strike water. I've also seen some old salts adding salt to their draft beers at the bar! This highlights the need for brewers to be aware of their source water chemistry and how these salts can affect the final flavor profile of many styles of beer.
Thanks - yeah, we want to see what the results would be to add the salts onto the finished beer. It was eye opening. - John
This is intense.
Wicked! -Mike
After temperature control, the best thing I did for my brewing is to switch to RO water and adjust the water with brewing salts (and lactic acid). It was not the simplest thing to adapt to but after a few times, it became much easier and EVERYONE noticed the difference. I've not been so lucky with adjusting after the beer was complete. This video was very helpful.
Thanks for the comment. This post-fermentation doctoring informed me how to adjust my water going forward. - John
I only started to add regular table salt to my wort (calculator tell me to). My beer quality jumped dramaticly. Before that my beer was realy hoppy and bitter no malt taste at all. Now I can taste the malt and the hop at the same time.
Interesting - thanks for the comment! - John
Great video guy’s , thanks for you sharing your knowledge keep it up great job.
Just getting into water treatment
I am using Beer Dust for now...???
Do you have any thoughts about this product
Thanks 👍👍
Beer Dust, and similar products, are fine. Just be sure you're starting with RO water as to not find yourself with a really off the mark profile. Cheers! -Mike
Dudes, i just brewed a pliny clone a few weeks ago and i did a gypsum experiment using my water and only adding gypsum and the beer was unpleasantly and harshly bitter pretty much undrinkable, i added some cal chloride to a glass and i was shocked how much it changed how i perceived it, it totally rounded it out and made it quite drinkable , unreal bros
NICE!!! Thanks for the comment! Cheers! -Mike
I add salt to light American beers when i drink them. Sometimes lemon too.
Great!
I brewed a few beers recently...Kolsch, Traquir House Ale and Pilsner Urquell. All were BIAB concept with all water added in the beginning. The water was half distilled and half mineral, I didn't know I would still need to change the water profile. The Kolsch and House ale are kegged and carbed and the Urquell is lagering. My kegged beers have an off taste like metal or something. The beer is drinkable, but I wanted to know if I could correct this in the keg. I am thinking just regular table salt, but I am not 100%. What are your thoughts?
Hey James - regular table salt is not going to give you the water profile you want. Look into brewing "salts" that are available from your homebrew shop of choice. Generally, we are adding Calcium sulfate and/or calcium chloride.
If you're only getting the pH right in the mash with no salts, and just adding the flavour salts to the boil, how do you account for the kettle salts driving the final beer pH too high or low? Or does too negligible to even matter? Thanks.
I think that would be an extreme case for kettle pH to get out of control when adding salts in the kettle. Furthermore, salts themselves don't really have an appreciable impact on pH. If you add the salts just to water pH will be relatively unchanged. Their reaction with Phosphates in the mash is what releases some H+ ions within the mash and that results in a lowering of pH. By the time you get to the kettle most of those reactions have already reached equilibrium and changing pH at that point would likely require strangely large amounts of salts to push through the equilibrium. At least that's my understanding. And in this video we are just demonstrating how you can taste the impact of a little more sulfate or chloride has on the finished beer and you can use that for future formulations. (One last thing, the only way to push pH up in the finished beer would be if you were adding chalk or baking soda and I don't think there's really ever a case to do that.). Cheers! -Mike
@@BrewDudes Thanks Mike, funnily enough I'm just cleaning up after trying this method for the first time today on a German Pils. I just used acid malt in the mash and hit bang on and then added any salts in the boil (I still treated the sparge water slightly with lactic to get to 6pH). Mash pH was closer to the software prediction than it has been in the last loads of brews. Cheers, love the videos, had been going back over a few during the holidays and found this really interesting.
i wish i could just rely on my tap water enough to just brew a batch without having to think about water chemistry.
after getting my water tested, it's got 200ppm of sodium and 300ppm chloride and 133 ppm of bicarbonate.
Literally unusable.
You could cut your water with distilled or RO water, add acid malt or lactic acid to get your proper mash pH, and brew a perfectly fine New England...
Yes, I think switching to RO/distilled water and adjusting with minerals is the way to go. - John
Mike,
Could you wear a lab coat on the next science vid?
Adds gravitas
Ya - let's get that going.