Subsitute for cream of tartar

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You might try using tartaric acid. Maybe half the amount? Cream of tartar is a 50% neutralized version of tartaric acid..so that might work. It should be available in your LHBS.
 
Yep, cream of tartar is vinsten in Swedish, how come you know that word? What is the function of cream of tartar in the ale recipe, is it to help the fermentation? From what I have read it is commonly used in baking, basically doing the same thing as baking soda.
 
Is the purpose simply for the Water profile Dave?

I don't believe so. Cream of tartar inhibits the formation of sugar crystals. My guess is that its there to keep the sugar from bunching up and remaining accessible to the yeast.
 
Cream of Tartar is often used when making invert/candi sugar for Belgian beers, other substitutes are a vitamin c tablet or even a couple drops of lemon juice. I don't know for what purpose in your recipe, but those might work for you.
 
? gypsum is completely different from cream of tartar....

in sweden i think it's called Vinsten. or try ordering online?

http://www.penzeys.com/

or find a local winemaker. they should have tons of it

I just saw it was a salt and assumed it was to help the water profile.

Any idea of its purpose? I had never heard of using it before.
 
Cream of Tartar is often used when making invert/candi sugar for Belgian beers, other substitutes are a vitamin c tablet or even a couple drops of lemon juice. I don't know for what purpose in your recipe, but those might work for you.

So not necessarily being accessible, just keeping it hyrdolized rather than crystals?
 
I just saw it was a salt and assumed it was to help the water profile.

Any idea of its purpose? I had never heard of using it before.

i have no idea. first thought would be to prevent crystallization, but sugar saturates at 1:1 ratio in water, and there's 6000g water to 750g sugar, so that shouldn't be a problem.

i don't know much about nettles, but aren't they poisonous or at least an irritant? Maybe it neutralizes it somehow?
 
i have no idea. first thought would be to prevent crystallization, but sugar saturates at 1:1 ratio in water, and there's 6000g water to 750g sugar, so that shouldn't be a problem.

i don't know much about nettles, but aren't they poisonous or at least an irritant? Maybe it neutralizes it somehow?

Boiling nettles prevents them from stinging. Perhaps its in there to balance the acids? I've read somewhere that a 3:1 ratio of lemon juice to cream of tartar provides the right balance of acids for baking applications.
 
Some info...

Cream of tartar is the common name for potassium hydrogen tartrate, an acid salt that has a number of uses in cooking. Now, before you get all jittery about the thought of cooking with an acid, it's worth noting that lettuce, brown sugar, steak, plums, and just about every other food we eat is acidic. In fact, egg whites, baking soda, and milk are the only non-acidic (alkaline) foods we have.

Cream of tartar is obtained when tartaric acid is half neutralized with potassium hydroxide, transforming it into a salt. Grapes are the only significant natural source of tartaric acid, and cream of tartar is obtained from sediment produced in the process of making wine. (The journal Nature reported some years ago that traces of calcium tartrate found in a pottery jar in the ruins of a village in northern Iran are evidence that wine was being made more than 7,000 years ago.)

Cream of tartar is best known in our kitchens for helping stabilize and give more volume to beaten egg whites. It is the acidic ingredient in some brands of baking powder. It is also used to produce a creamier texture in sugary desserts such as candy and frosting, because it inhibits the formation of crystals. It is used commercially in some soft drinks, candies, bakery products, gelatin desserts, and photography products. Cream of tartar can also be used to clean brass and copper cookware.
If you are beating eggs whites and don't have cream of tartar, you can substitute white vinegar (in the same ratio as cream of tartar, generally 1/8 teaspoon per egg white). It is a little more problematic to find a substitute for cream of tartar in baking projects. White vinegar or lemon juice, in the ratio of 3 times the amount of cream of tartar called for, will provide the right amount of acid for most recipes. But that amount of liquid may cause other problems in the recipe, and bakers have found that cakes made with vinegar or lemon juice have a coarser grain and are more prone to shrinking than those made with cream of tartar.

Now, if they were making cream of tarter 7,000 years ago in Iran (or at least if cream of tartar was making itself),

Inverted sugar syrup can be easily made by adding roughly one gram of citric acid or ascorbic acid, per kilogram of sugar. Cream of tartar (one gram per kilogram) or fresh lemon juice (10 millilitres per kilogram) may also be used.

The mixture is boiled for 20 minutes, and will convert enough of the sucrose to effectively prevent crystallization, without giving a noticeably sour taste. Invert sugar syrup may also be produced without the use of acids or enzymes by thermal means alone: two parts granulated sucrose and one part water simmered for five to seven minutes will convert a modest portion to invert sugar.

All inverted sugar syrups are created from hydrolysing sucrose to glucose (dextrose) and fructose by heating a sucrose solution, then relying on time alone, with the catalytic properties of an acid or enzymes used to speed the reaction. Commercially prepared acid catalysed solutions are neutralised when the desired level of inversion is reached.

All constituent sugars (sucrose, glucose and fructose) support fermentation, so invert sugar solutions may be fermented as readily as sucrose solutions.

This thread on here talks about it being used as a substitute for winemaker's acid blend, so I wonder if using winemaker's acid blend as a sub would work in this recipe, providing that is easier to come by over there.

It shows up in recipes for ginger beer made from the ginger beer plant. Michael Tonsmier the mad fermentalist (Oldsock on here) says it's used for head retention?!?!?! http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/07/ginger-beer-plant-101.html
 
Some info...





This thread on here talks about it being used as a substitute for winemaker's acid blend, so I wonder if using winemaker's acid blend as a sub would work in this recipe, providing that is easier to come by over there.

It shows up in recipes for ginger beer made from the ginger beer plant. Michael Tonsmier the mad fermentalist (Oldsock on here) says it's used for head retention?!?!?! http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/07/ginger-beer-plant-101.html

The acid blend is a mix of citric, malic, and tartaric acid. I imagine there'd be enough citric acid in this recipe from the lemon and orange juice that you might not want to add more.

I'll have to look into the head retention thing... very interesting.
 
"In fact, egg whites, baking soda, and milk are the only non-acidic (alkaline) foods we have."

Just a small point here but milk is not alkaline, it's mildly acidic.
 
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