Brew day mistake, late addition of sodium metabisulfite :/

I am still working on my brew-day checklist and, despite having prepared a sodium metabisulfite solution, I forgot to douse the strike water which may or may not have contained chloramines. I realized of my omission right after dough-in and decided to add directly to the mash hoping it will work. I could not perceive any chlorine smell coming out as the smell from the grains was quite strong. Either nothing came out or I could just not sense it.

Was adding the late addition of sodium metabisulfite a mistake? Was it too late or would it work anyway?

Note that when I doused the sparge water, a little at a time as described in the sticky post, I could smell chlorine coming out. So there is some sort of chlorine in the water I used, but I cannot tell if it is just chlorine or both chlorine and chloramines.

Your comments are appreciated!

Have you had a problem with chlorine taste in the past? If you have highly chlorinated water that has caused problems in the past, i can't imagine why adding to the mash vs strike water would be a problem since chloramine wont boil off regardkess. Unless there is a pH issue regarding metabisulfite?

I cannot say I've had problems in the past. I know there is chlorine in the water but I did not do any test or run experiments to determine if there were chloramines in the water I used for last batch.

I am after understanding if a "late" addition of metabisulfite directly to the mash would be counterproductive flavour-wise and if this addition would be sufficient to remove chlorine and chloramine in the water used for dough in (if any present).

Even though I added the metabisulphite 5 minutes into the mash, I don't know if the creation of clorophenols would have already taken place (or is it only in the presence of yeast?) thus making my addition worthless or worse.

My understanding (open to correction by the water gods on this part of the forum) was that the chlorine/chloramine interactions with phenols from grain husks to form those nasty chlorophenols happens very rapidly. I don't think what you did is going to hurt anything by any means, and maybe it'd help, but it also may have been too late.

Too late! If there were chloramines or chlorine in the water, they reacted instantly with the wort. Your late addition of the metabisulfite didn't do any good, but it didn't hurt. Sorry.

p_p said:

Note that when I doused the sparge water, a little at a time as described in the sticky post, I could smell chlorine coming out.

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I must of missed somthing important... what sticky post?

mabrungard said:

Too late! If there were chloramines or chlorine in the water, they reacted instantly with the wort. Your late addition of the metabisulfite didn't do any good, but it didn't hurt. Sorry.

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That was not the answer I was hoping for!

Well fingers crossed the water provider didn't want to spend in cloramines this month ... I will do the "overnight" experiment to check what's in there.

Blue-Frog said:

I must of missed somthing important... what sticky post?

Click to expand...

This one: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=361073

If you haven't noticed the sticky posts in this section of the forum, I recommend you scroll up and have a look. Really good info there.

I have a follow up question ... would the chlorophenols taste be present in the unfermented wort? Because I drank quite a bit of it and it was good.