Yes we have been tinkering with Calcium Lactate, so far it is looking very good, as you say no Anion (Sulphate/Chloride/Carbonate) issues to worry about and the raw salt has a faint well bitter salty taste.
Reading the literature the upper limits for calcium additions (within reason say under 200 ppm) are all related to the Anions not the amount of Calcium.
Down side, its more expensive than other common water salts; the food grade version is a pentahydrate so the salt is only ~13% Calcium.
Up side, its a no fuss way to heap in the Calcium; one of the unexpected side effects in some beers is the extra Calcium is giving a lot of thermal protection to the alpha amylase and you can get much more attenuateive worts, handy if you are making very big beers. So far no one is other than happy with the results, especially one of my customers who is brewing with tank water about a 10% jump in yield, clearer wort and a much better tasting beer, just from adding the Calcium Lactate (I suspect the addition of any salts would have helped).
I have been thinking of starting a research thread.
My first thought is to run a bunch of parallel mashes, using the standard congress mash parameters including distilled water and just varying the Calcium levels, just to see how much effect it has on yield.
Follow up with some parallel mashes with and without to look at flavour impact. At this point I would be looking for brewers who can accurately reproduce mash/boil profiles so Braumeister or good herms/rims controlled systems and some experienced BIABers who are willing to make the same beer a couple of times
If anyone else is interested I would appreciate any input and will be more than happy to provide Calcium Lactate for testing.
Email me if youre interested ([email protected])
MHB
Reading the literature the upper limits for calcium additions (within reason say under 200 ppm) are all related to the Anions not the amount of Calcium.
Down side, its more expensive than other common water salts; the food grade version is a pentahydrate so the salt is only ~13% Calcium.
Up side, its a no fuss way to heap in the Calcium; one of the unexpected side effects in some beers is the extra Calcium is giving a lot of thermal protection to the alpha amylase and you can get much more attenuateive worts, handy if you are making very big beers. So far no one is other than happy with the results, especially one of my customers who is brewing with tank water about a 10% jump in yield, clearer wort and a much better tasting beer, just from adding the Calcium Lactate (I suspect the addition of any salts would have helped).
I have been thinking of starting a research thread.
My first thought is to run a bunch of parallel mashes, using the standard congress mash parameters including distilled water and just varying the Calcium levels, just to see how much effect it has on yield.
Follow up with some parallel mashes with and without to look at flavour impact. At this point I would be looking for brewers who can accurately reproduce mash/boil profiles so Braumeister or good herms/rims controlled systems and some experienced BIABers who are willing to make the same beer a couple of times
If anyone else is interested I would appreciate any input and will be more than happy to provide Calcium Lactate for testing.
Email me if youre interested ([email protected])
MHB
