any benefits of adding gypsum to dry hop?

I'll be racking my rye ipa (BIAB) for a dry hop in about a week or so. This was my first all grain batch and just got around to taking a look at my city's water report. My chloride is somewhat low (21 ppm) but sulfate is much lower (8.9 ppm). Is there any chance in the world that adding gypsum when I dry hop could do any good for increasing bitterness or will I just have to hope for a decent malty smooth rye ale?

You can just wait until you see how it comes out of the dry hop. Since you can add chloride or gypsum at any point (to my knowledge). Before adding, you might want to try adding some to a measured amount of beer and do a side by side trial of it. Figure out how much you like and then scale it up.

Adding salts to change the pH is something you do in the mash, sparge and boil..... I may be wrong, but I don't think it would have much effect in the secondary...

Adding at dry hop won't affect any pH's, but it will affect the flavor. I'd suggest following mmonacel's advice and check on how you think it tastes before dropping any salts in it.

Alright cool thanks guys, would my option be then to add when transferring to bottling bucket?

Yes, adding gypsum to the post-fermentation beer will be OK. As mentioned above, it also gives the brewer a chance to evaluate what their sulfate level preference is.

mabrungard said:

Yes, adding gypsum to the post-fermentation beer will be OK. As mentioned above, it also gives the brewer a chance to evaluate what their sulfate level preference is.

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Hey, sorry for reviving a dead thread, but I was wondering if, before adding gypsum post fermentation, you boil it in some water first and if so, how much? Thanks!

I would be careful when adding to the secondary simply because it doesnt dissolve well as it is in the kettle much less a carboy. You could try boiling like you mentioned and adding it but I dont think that will be as effective. I personally would just plan ahead of time and add it to the mash.

Gypsum is more soluble in cold water than hot so it will actually dissolve more easily in beer than kettle wort but those considerations aside I would make a solution and boil it for sanitation reasons. You probably don't really have to do that because o the bacteriostatic properties of hop but I tend to be conservative when it comes to sanitation.