Sodium Met In The Brew

[Tony]

I have been talking to a few brewers and it seemd sodium met in the brew is a fairly common occurance.

I have talked to some who add it to the secondary to absorb oxygen and others that add it when mashing.

I was after a general consensus on the issue.

What do you do???

cheers

 

[JasonY]

When I remember I put a pinch in the mash. Does it make a difference, well I can't say I have noticed nor conducted an experiment to figure it out.

But I have a container of it that is doing nothin else so I figure it can't hurt to add a little.

 

[Borret]

I am far from knowledgable in this area but from what I have read the nasties from Sod Met are boiled off in the kettle if added to the mash. For this reason I would only use it here for combatting the air sucked in when draining and the splashing from recirculation. Any where after the boil would be like trying to sanitise your bottles with it and not rinsing the filthy stuff out. Yuck!

Again, just what I read.

Borret

 

[Ross]

Tony,

As you already know, I use a pinch in the mash tun - I took Ray Mills tip on this one...

Cheers Ross

 

[Kai]

I put around an eighth of a teaspoon in my mash, I do 2.5kg in a 6-pack esky and when it comes to aeration during mashing I'm fairly abusive.

Does it work? I dunno. It's a good placebo though.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

I use Pottasium Met. at the rate of 1/8th of a teaspoon in with the mash.

C&B
TDA

 

[Snow]

I use a pinch in the mash every time and on the rare occurrances that i bottle a brew, I use it in the bottling bucket, too.

- Snow

 

[SteveSA]

Just a pinch of Pot. Met. in the mash as an anti-oxidant.

 

[pint of lager]

1.5 gms in the mash, which is usually 8-10 kg grain for final volume of 45 litres into the fermenter.

As suggested by Graham Sanders.

 

[PeterS]

I have no idea what is the difference between Sodium Metabisulphate and Potasium Metabisulphate. I note that some use one and another use the other. (and don't tell me to google, for I do not understand some of those terminologies used). All I know is that I get Sodium Met. from my HSB and I use a pinch in my mash.

Is both of those chemicals interchangable for the purpose it is desigened?. Meaning in this case to avoid Hot side aeration. I presume that is what we are talking about.

:chug:
PeterS....

 

[Kai]

For the purpose of antioxidative behaviour they're interchangeable, Peter.

 

[Tim]

Sodium Met (or potassium met) will also remove iodine, bromine and chlorine ions from the water, as well as the 'alledged' anti oxidant powers.
Can anyone give me any equations or half equation as to why the bisulfate anion can act as an anti-oxidant?

 

[sam]

Noonan in New Brewing Lager Beer talks about using metabisulphate as an antioxidant in brewing, and mentions its unpopularity due to the byproducts being unstable in the finished beer, creating a problem with oxidation flavours.

Thats a poor explantation of what he was getting at, I'll check out the book tonight and fix it up.

Anyway, I've always been worried about using metabisulphate in the mash and brew for that reason.

Anyone know anything about this?