Anyone use Calcium Carbonate at all?
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It has its uses. If you use a lot of dark malt and/or your dark malts are of unusually high titratable acidity and/or your base malt has an unusually low pH and/or your water is low in alkalinity your mash pH will be too low. The easiest way to get it back into the desired range is to add some calcium carbonate to the mash and recheck pH repeating the addition as necessary, until the pH is correct.
Rather than do this at brew time it is advisable to make a small test mash and check its pH. This will tell you what to expect with the full up brew i.e. approximately how much chalk you should have on hand.
One should be very careful about pre-addition of chalk to a beer recipe either in the water or in the grain as there is lots of guidance abroad that would have you add a great deal more calcium carbonate that is required in many cases. The result would be overly high mash pH. Always check with a meter until you have enough experience to know where pH is going to go.
EDIT: I suppose I should add to this that if I am doing a special brew for a class where I want to emulate, for example, Burton water, I must use calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide to get calcium bicarbonate at the level representative of Burton into the water being synthesized. This is rarely justified and a waste of time in general but as most natural waters contain calcium bicarbonate if you want to emulate most natural waters you must use calcium carbonate.
Rather than do this at brew time it is advisable to make a small test mash and check its pH. This will tell you what to expect with the full up brew i.e. approximately how much chalk you should have on hand.
One should be very careful about pre-addition of chalk to a beer recipe either in the water or in the grain as there is lots of guidance abroad that would have you add a great deal more calcium carbonate that is required in many cases. The result would be overly high mash pH. Always check with a meter until you have enough experience to know where pH is going to go.
EDIT: I suppose I should add to this that if I am doing a special brew for a class where I want to emulate, for example, Burton water, I must use calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide to get calcium bicarbonate at the level representative of Burton into the water being synthesized. This is rarely justified and a waste of time in general but as most natural waters contain calcium bicarbonate if you want to emulate most natural waters you must use calcium carbonate.
jsled
Well-Known Member
A recipe shouldn't call for a water addition. A recipe/style might want a specific water chemistry specific ion levels or ratios. But suggesting an addition without knowing the source water makeup is blind. With knowledge of your own water, you can adjust to the desired levels.
I second that comment that beer recipes should not be calling for mineral additions since a brewer's water is probably different than the original recipe author's water. A recipe could call for a targeted water profile or range of ionic content and rely on the brewer to alter their water to that profile, but that is a level of sophistication that I haven't seen much.
As AJ said, chalk is kind of flakey to use and you really need to know that you need to add that alkalinity before you do it. Don't add alkalinity unless you have to. Mash pH measurement is obviously the most accurate way of assessing that need. But if a brewer has the existing water profile, mash grist, and intended water profile, it is possible to estimate the resulting mash pH and figure out if alkalinity might be needed.
As AJ said, chalk is kind of flakey to use and you really need to know that you need to add that alkalinity before you do it. Don't add alkalinity unless you have to. Mash pH measurement is obviously the most accurate way of assessing that need. But if a brewer has the existing water profile, mash grist, and intended water profile, it is possible to estimate the resulting mash pH and figure out if alkalinity might be needed.
I'd NEVER use it with my water. I'd love to get rid of a bunch of it though!
Fact is, the person who wrote the recipe has ZERO idea of what your water has in it. My water is so highly alkaline that I need to cut it for anything but very dark beer.
Fact is, the person who wrote the recipe has ZERO idea of what your water has in it. My water is so highly alkaline that I need to cut it for anything but very dark beer.
The only thing I use calcium carbonate for is a few of my wines. It's useful for me, when I want to reduce the acidity of some of my wines- like rhubarb. It really helps reduce the oxalic acid level in that! I have a jar of it, and it'll probably last my lifetime. 
So, Homer, if you have tons to get rid of- start making catawba grape wine, rhubarb wine, or even maybe concord grape wine. You could use up to a Tablespoon in one year, if you made enough of those wines!
So, Homer, if you have tons to get rid of- start making catawba grape wine, rhubarb wine, or even maybe concord grape wine. You could use up to a Tablespoon in one year, if you made enough of those wines!
I actually have a very dry/tart grape wine that I think could use a bit of toning down. I'll look into that, thanks!
