Recipe Additions

[Noxious]

Hi all,
Just got back into the swing of brewing again after a year or so and have been checking up some new recipes on here, alot of which seem to require additions of; salt, epsom salts, calcium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate and a few other things I have never heard of using in ales/lagers before.
Is this simply to adjust the pH of the water/wort to alter softness/hardness?
Or to give nutrient to the yeast to produce a particular flavour?
Or something else all together??

Pretty broad question I guess but I'm sure someone out there would be able to give me a bit of an idea, i.e - should I be 'salting' my pale ales?
Cheers in advance

 

[benno1973]

Addition of salts will adjust the pH of your brewing water, as well as changing the profile of your beer. Different salts do different things, for example sulphates add a crispness to the hops, while chlorides can give body and palate fullness to a beer. And check out this to understand how different salts affect pH.

I'd suggest you don't make any salt additions until you:
1. Know your water profile
2. Understand what the salt addition will do for you, and why you are adding it.

 

[felten]

I would only look at salt additions if you are having a high mash pH issue with your paler beers, or if you aren't happy with the flavour profile and want to tweak it that way.

 

[Noxious]

Thanks for the help,
I suspected it would have something to do with pH alteration, 3 years of organic chem all for that one moment eh? :lol:
I don't really care too much about the water profile yet, brews have been getting better and better in steps without dramas, at the point now where the made beer tastes better than most of the bought beers anyway, but it would be nice to know for future reference.

My water profile is -
pH - 7.5 - 8
Conductivity - 15 - 18
Total Hardness - 42 - 58 (mg/L)
Ca Hardness - 32 - 44 (mg/L)
Mg Hardness - 5 - 14 (mg/L)
Alkalinity - 21 - 30 (mg/L)
Free Chlorine - 0 - 0.49 (mg/L)
M-chloramine - 0.08 - 1.45 (mg/L)
Calcium - 12.6 - 17.2 (mg/L)
Chloride - 24.5 - 31.5 (mg/L)
Magnesium - 1.84 - 2.82 (mg/L)
Sodium - 9.3 - 12.9 (mg/L)
Sulfate - 4 - 6 (mg/L)

Does that help at all?
Cheers again all

 

[argon]

Thanks for the help,
I suspected it would have something to do with pH alteration, 3 years of organic chem all for that one moment eh? :lol:
I don't really care too much about the water profile yet, brews have been getting better and better in steps without dramas, at the point now where the made beer tastes better than most of the bought beers anyway, but it would be nice to know for future reference.

My water profile is -
pH - 7.5 - 8
Conductivity - 15 - 18
Total Hardness - 42 - 58 (mg/L)
Ca Hardness - 32 - 44 (mg/L)
Mg Hardness - 5 - 14 (mg/L)
Alkalinity - 21 - 30 (mg/L)
Free Chlorine - 0 - 0.49 (mg/L)
M-chloramine - 0.08 - 1.45 (mg/L)
Calcium - 12.6 - 17.2 (mg/L)
Chloride - 24.5 - 31.5 (mg/L)
Magnesium - 1.84 - 2.82 (mg/L)
Sodium - 9.3 - 12.9 (mg/L)
Sulfate - 4 - 6 (mg/L)

Does that help at all?
Cheers again all

Have a read through Palmer's How to Brew chapter 15. In particular 15.4. This explains the water additions and water chemistry pretty thoroughly.

Chapter 15 - Understanding the Mash pH

 

[felten]

Doesn't look too bad really, calcium, sulphate and chloride are the main ions of interest, check out the key concepts in water treatment article; its for melbourne but it explains all that stuff very well. There is a lot of info out there but no really simple guides in how to use salts because everyone's water/malt/whatever is different, so most of it is down to trial and error over time.

What is a problem though is the chloramine and chlorine, you really need to get rid of those before making beer with it, chloramines are a little harder to get rid of than chlorine.