jmf143

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Your latin is on par with your water knowledge!

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Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur

ajdelange

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I was frequently warned many many years ago by perhaps the most eccentric man I have ever met of the dire consequences likely to befall those who did not learn their semi-deponents. Loquor is a semi deponent so there it is!

junior

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[QUOTE=Yooper;2310230]By Ajdelange






For British beers: Add 1 tsp gypsum as well as 1 tsp calcium chloride


Can someone explain why the suggestion is to add both, gypsum and calcium chloride? What I have read is that they do the same things, lower ph and add calcium ions to benefit the enzymes in breaking down starch molecules to sugar. I am probably wrong in my assumption, the reason that is I am just beginning to read about water chemistry.

ajdelange

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Correct on the calcium but gypsum adds sulfate as well as calcium and calcium chloride adds chloride as well as calcium. These two have profoundly different effects on the quality of the beer to the point that many think one offsets the other. In fact the effects are not offsetting but chloride adds fullness (body), roundness and sweetness to the beer while sulfate adds dryness and sharpens (to the point of harshness in many cases) the perception of hops. In British beers this is sought after. In German beers it is avoided. Thus in brewing British style beers many references will suggest the addition of a lot of gypsum. It is the opinion of many that sulfate harshness does not improve British beers any more than it does continental beers (and other disagree strenuously) and so brew their ales with little or no sulfate. Because of this I always recommend starting out with low sulfate and adding it incrementally to see if you like or dislike its effects. As gypsum is so traditional in British brewing I recommended splitting the calcium contribution half and half between sulfate and chloride as a starting point.

junior

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Ajdelange, if I understand you correctly, the calcium aids enzymes in there ability to convert starch to sugar, and the chloride and the sulfate if used are more for the taste aspects and not for the fermentation benefits. Hope these questions make sense to you, and thank's for the lesson in brewing water chemistry.

ajdelange

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Yes, calcium is beneficial in many ways as an enzyme cofactor, through its influence on mash pH etc and yes, sulfate and chloride can be used to exert control over flavor.

junior

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Ajdelange, uneducated people like me appreciate the help people like you unselfishly give, thank you very much. P.S. I didn't know what (cofactor) meant so I looked it up,, a substance that needs to be present in addition to an enzyme for a certain reaction to be catalysed. That's two things I have learned in one post. I should have paid more attention in school.

chrisdb

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I too thank you again-
everything I needed was in the original post

Oter

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Just out of curiousity, is the information in the first post supposed be a blanket quick fix, regardless of where you live or what your water report says? I want to do an Bitter, so should I just follow the british beers guideline?

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Out of Focus Brewing Co.
Spring Hill, TN

sivdrinks

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I believe it's based on RO water not tap water.