Leaving Gypsum Out Of The Brew

[khendrickson]

Hello,

I have a recipe that calls for gypsum in it. From what I can tell it is used to deal with hard water and bring out the appearent bitterness of the hops. I was wondering if I could just leave it out? My water isn't overly hard and if I want more bitterness to it, say toss in a couple of extra grams of hops...

Let me know what you think.

 

[hillbillybreweries]

depending on the style you are going to brew Gypsum can be of benifit. It can give you a crisper finish that you will not get from just adding more bittering hops. This can be the case if you are brewing English Pale styles for example. Depending on the recipe the result may differ from the intended final beer.

 

[Fourstar]

Gypsum lowers your pH somewhat and can partially buffer against carbonates. The Calcium also has an effect on yeast flocculation and other parts i wont address here.

Gypsum (or sulfate for that matter) will accentuate the sharpness of hop bitterness and IMO it does make a difference to the quality hop profile of hoppy beers. (flavours seem to stand up more and are not 'flat' amongst the malt.)

That being said, if you don't have it on hand i wouldn't fret. Leave it out, your beer will still be good but it may have benefited from the use of Gypsum.

 

[argon]

Unless you know (or have a reasonable idea) what your water chemistry is, there's not much point adding things to it. You don't know what the effects will be. For example you're water might already have a chloride to sulfate ratio that suits the beer that your making. The addition of gypsum to an unknown profile may or may not stuff it up.

So either add the gypsum and be prepared that you might not get the results your after and brew again next time with adjusted additions to your taste. Or, find your water profile, determine what you want to achieve and calculate your additions/adjustments accordingly.

 

[khendrickson]

It can give you a crisper finish that you will not get from just adding more bittering hops.

From what I can tell about the recipe it is for a crisper finish. As for my water quality is run of the mill tap water with the standard Chlorine and Fluoride and a mis match of rust and nasty from the pipes. I will just run this batch with out it and when i get some i will dose the next batch with it to see if it makes that much of a difference.