Campden Tablet Questions

I began using Campden Tablets a few batches ago because I thought I detected a Chlorine taste in one of my Beers. Our city water uses Chloramine. A friend gave me a few Campden Tablets.

I’m running out now and I can’t get any locally but the supermarket had bags of potassium metabisulfite with the wine making stuff.

First are Campden Tablets potassium metabisulfite or sodium metabisulfite? From a brief web search it seems they could be either or is it both? Is one better for brewing and one worse?

Second now I have a bag of the stuff how much do I add? I persume about the same as a crushed tablet?

Third, when do I add it? For wine making it seems to go in to the must, then at least one web site sez it kills off any wild yeasts, etc. and to wait 24 hours before pitching the wine yeast. Presumably to let it clear. I’ve been adding it to the water prior to heating to strike temp for mashing or sparging. Is that and the boil clearing it all or is it still in the wort degrading my yeast?

Thanks

Rudeboy

I know the ones I get (L.D. Carlson) are sodium metabisulfite. I always add mine to the mash and sparge water when I begin heating.

They are made from both. One tablet will treat up to 20 gals of water. Just crush it up really fine (between two teaspoons works well), and mix vigorously into your water as it heats up. You can cut a tablet in half if you are worried about 'over-dosing' your water, but according to John Palmer, one tablet in 5 gals of water won't even be detectable. And no, if you add the tablets BEFORE you boil, it won't hurt your yeast. (But I can't say for sure what would happen with a no-boil wort kit, like The BrewHouse makes.)

I hate to be the guy that does this but here is a thread that I found helpful. check out the link with the BYO article. please post your results as I will be following

http://homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=59467

What does chlorine taste like in beer?

adamjab19 said:

What does chlorine taste like in beer?

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Medicinal. Band aids. Yuccchh.

I do both a carbon filter and campden tablets or potassium metabisulfite in each brew. It only takes a small amount per 5 gallon batch to get the job done and it happens fast so don’t put it in until the HLT is full. I was getting the medicinal flavor but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. After I got a carbon filter it got better but once I started using both it was a drastic difference.

am I the only one that's noticed that his grocery store has WINE MAKING SUPPLY?
HOW COOL IS THAT? I'm lucky if our grocery store has Milk, Eggs, and Bread on the same day.

Oh...Ya...and Wine makers add a campden tab for every gallon of must sometimes....I don't' think a tab per 5 gallons would be very effective...But beer and wine can be MILES apart.

BigKahuna said:

am I the only one that's noticed that his grocery store has WINE MAKING SUPPLY?
HOW COOL IS THAT? I'm lucky if our grocery store has Milk, Eggs, and Bread on the same day.

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Must be a Canadian thing. Of course, your grocery store probably also sells actual beer. I would MUCH rather have that. Ours only sell beer kits (Coopers, at that).

FlyGuy said:

Must be a Canadian thing. Of course, your grocery store probably also sells actual beer. I would MUCH rather have that. Ours only sell beer kits (Coopers, at that).

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I'll take a coopers kit over Bud with lime any day.

Go with the potassium not the sodium. Both will do the same, but I've heard the sodium will produce off flavors. It might not matter with beer.....but why risk it. Plus why add more sodium to your diet..

Definitely add it before the boil, as the whole idea of the stuff is to kill off wild yeast as well as beer yeast. If your current system has been working for you though....just keep using it.

I think rudyboy is using campden tablets to convert chlorine into choride and sulfite into sulfate not to kill wild or cultured yeast.
I use about 1/8 of a teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite for 15 gallons of mash and sparge water.

I fill my MLT and HLT with filtered water and add a crushed tablet between them (that's one tab for about 16 gallons total). I figure I'd break my chloramine (anything that made it through the carbon filter) down to chlorine and that would disipate out of the water overnight and during heating the next day.

King of Cascade said:

I use about 1/8 of a teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite for 15 gallons of mash and sparge water.

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Thanks that's what I was looking for.

Sorry poorly worded questions. I knew when to put it in I was just wondering if that would have some left over toxicity for my yeast. Answer. No. (or so it would seem).

Thanks all.

Rudeboy

No toxicity rudeboy just chloride and sulfate and are routinely added to brewing water in the form of calcium chloride and calcium sulfate respectively