What happens when you use to much Gypsum?

I just purchased a reverse osmosis system for my all grain system and used a water profile that asked for almost 39g of Gypsum for a 10 gallon batch. We treated enough for 15 gallons that included the hot liquor tank. Our local brew shop had given us the Burton-on-Trent profile that came from Pro Mash. In the profile it called for 2.6 grams of Gypsum per Gal. Is that right? Did we read it wrong? or was Pro Mash wrong? When I looked at the Gypsum bottle after brew day I noticed that it says to add 1 to 2 tsp per 5 gal. Of course I read it after brew day. Our estimated starting gravity was 1.054 and our actual starting gravity was 1.043. Big difference!

You will get a sharp almost minerally bitterness quality to the beer if you use too much gypsum. I've used 6 grams in a 6 gallon batch and that was on the verge of too much and that only got my gypsum up to 250PPM, which was a modifying of my current water. To me the 800 or so that is the burton profile is way too much. 39 grams sounds like a crap load. I cannot say that the resulting beer will taste like hell but I'd bet it is going to very sharp.

Did you read the water chemistry primer help file by Robert Arguello first?

Make sure you look through the tutorials

I have tried brewing an English IPA with a Burton water profile according to Promash. The results were less than stellar.
I have also tried a really bitter IPA using 1/2 lb EKG for a 5g batch with the profiles suggested by Terry Foster (Ca 150 - 200 ppm, SO4 300 - 400 ppm, and Cl 30ppm). The difference was like night and day with Foster's suggestions being much better.
For a more moderate IPA, he suggests Ca 100 - 150 ppm, SO4 200 - 300 ppm, and Cl 30 ppm. I do this quite often and have been very pleased with the results.

-a.

Reading more about gypsum I think that is what might be resulting in a very dry, almost sharp, flavor in my most recent IPA. At some point along the way, with my over-analysis of my local water, I somewhere picked up the advice to "add gypsum to accentuate the hop flavor in IPAs and PAs". Well, I added a teaspoon to my last brew (not sure how many grams that is). But, the resulting flavor, as verified by several friends, is simply put as a very dry beer. I'm now pretty sure it's the gypsum giving it that dry, sharp flavor. I can't wait to try another IPA and not use it. Not sure where I got on the kick, but I did, and now I'm kind of regretting it.

cold crashing your finished beer @29f~30f and hold it for a few days, this will help presipatate out as much of the gypson as possable, if it get slushy it will remove even more it , the gypson will Crystalize and fall to the bottom.

Your calculations were not wrong. If you're trying to emulate Burton on Trent using gypsum as modeled in the brewing software programs I'm familiar with, you're about where you need to be on Ca & Sulfate.

Now whether this water profile is actually realizable using standard brewing salts is beyond my scope of knowledge.

I added 15 g of gypsum to a 5 gal Maris Otter Amarillo SMaSH I brewed at OG 1060 and IBU 35. It was the best pale ale I ever brewed. I always add at least 10 g of gypsum when I make a very hoppy beer, and the results have always turned out great as far as the hop profile is concerned.

I don't have the exact numbers but I misread my first beer kits instructions and added a couple table spoons of gyspum to it (an APA). Turned out fine, quite tasty in fact.

kevmoron said:

I added 15 g of gypsum to a 5 gal Maris Otter Amarillo SMaSH I brewed at OG 1060 and IBU 35. It was the best pale ale I ever brewed. I always add at least 10 g of gypsum when I make a very hoppy beer, and the results have always turned out great as far as the hop profile is concerned.

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Wow, so at 4g/tsp that's 4 tsp or 2 Tbsp. I guess it really depends on your initial water profile, and what might be deficient or what might be abundant. From what I've gathered the gypsum can really help those with water on the soft side, to add some hardness through the calcium. My water is already very hard at 161ppm of calcium and 230ppm of hardness. So, with me adding a hardening salt to my already hard water, I think that's where I'm getting the flavor. Can't wait to try a hoppy beer without it.

gifty74 said:

Wow, so at 4g/tsp that's 4 tsp or 2 Tbsp. I guess it really depends on your initial water profile, and what might be deficient or what might be abundant. From what I've gathered the gypsum can really help those with water on the soft side, to add some hardness through the calcium. My water is already very hard at 161ppm of calcium and 230ppm of hardness. So, with me adding a hardening salt to my already hard water, I think that's where I'm getting the flavor. Can't wait to try a hoppy beer without it.

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Yes, it does depend on the initial profile. If you use Beersmith, it is very helpful for this in that it will let you set your initial municipal water profile and build up from there.

I live in NYC, and our water supply is very soft.

Awesome, that makes sense that you would need to add in the gypsum having the soft water. I know that with my beer, I hit all of the numbers, and had a very good brew session, maintained consistent fermentation temps, and all of the comments I get are just that the beer is very dry. Good flavor, but the bittering hops are over-accentuated to the point they leave a very sharp and dry mouthfeel.