Gypsum and Calcium Chloride in Partial Mash IPAs

How much Gypsum and Calcium Chloride is needed to boost my bottled spring water profile up to excellent mineral levels for an American IPA / IIPA ?

Assuming:

-5.00 gallon boil start
-1.00 gallon boil and trub loss
-4.00 gallon batch size - No dilution
-Recipe contains 42% Extra Light DME extract, which already contains some dissolved minerals

Ca 22
Mg 5
S04 11
Na 5
Cl 8.5
HC03 75
Alkalinity 61

I'm thinking like 2 grams (1/2 tsp) of ClC2 and 8 grams (2 tsp) of Gypsum.

And if you severely undershoot these additions, is it okay to add them to the primary after 2 weeks, or is this highly unadvisable?

EyePeeA said:

How much Gypsum and Calcium Chloride is needed to boost my bottled spring water profile up to excellent mineral levels for an American IPA / IIPA ?

Assuming:

-5.00 gallon boil start
-1.00 gallon boil and trub loss
-4.00 gallon batch size - No dilution
-Recipe contains 42% DME extract, which already contains some dissolved minerals

Ca 22
Mg 5
S04 11
Na 5
Cl 8.5
HC03 75
Alkalinity 61

I'm thinking like 2 grams (1/2 tsp) of ClC2 and 8 grams (2 tsp) of Gypsum.

And if you severely undershoot these additions, is it okay to add them to the primary after 2 weeks, or is this highly unadvisable?

Click to expand...

You can add them anytime, as they are for flavor. But I wouldn't use any CaCl2, as I don't see the need. You can use some gypsum if you want to make the hops bitterness stand out, though.

Well, as you can see, my levels are fairly week. I don't believe that the dissolved mineral content in the extract (only 42% of the recipe) will signficantly boost those numbers. I want to make sure I have enough calcium for yeast health, enough sulfate for hop bite, and enough chloride for whatever it is that chloride does. I have heard there is some connection with chloride and sulfate in pale hoppy ales. And particularly, if I find the hop bite to be lacking upon tasting the sample, will adding some sulfate after the fact (when it is already beer) help matters, or no? This is for a high IBU, high OG AIPA.

You won't be mashing so if you are worried about yeast health just use gypsum to get you up to at least 50 or so. Chloride and sufate kinda fight each other. Just try the gypsum for this batch and go from there.

I'm mashing 50% of my beer with American 2-row and a touch of Munich and Wheat. The other 50% = 42% extract and 8% corn sugar.

The unknown here is the ion content in the extract. But I doubt that it will be high in sulfate.

You could start out with 1 or 1.5 tsp gypsum to the boil and add more to the beer later if you think it improves the taste.

Kai