Adding salt at bottling?

I tried to make a coffee flavored blonde, but when I moved it to secondary the sample that I tried had a harsh bitterness to it. My wife is taking a biology course which led her to suggest adding salt to the beer at bottling--kind of how some people add salt when brewing coffee to cut bitterness. Has anyone tried this?


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cookmic5 said:

I tried to make a coffee flavored blonde, but when I moved it to secondary the sample that I tried had a harsh bitterness to it. My wife is taking a biology course which led her to suggest adding salt to the beer at bottling--kind of how some people add salt when brewing coffee to cut bitterness. Has anyone tried this?


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Try it first! Take a sample of the beer and sprinkle a bit of salt in it and see if it's better. It might be worse, so then you don't ruin 5 whole batches. If it is, then you can add it if you like. or you can add it into the glass at serving, as maybe that beer will get much better with age.

The salt is going to reduce your head retention. I personally would probably stick to adding salt at serving as the harsh bitterness will likely mellow over time and then you avoid messing thinks up on a batch level.

There are a number of ways to introduce coffee to beer. What was your technique? You may want to consider alternative coffee addition techniques and/or recipe alterations to account for the increased bitteress that coffee contributes.

When I want coffee flavor I usually use coffee malt instead of coffee.

Pie_Man said:

There are a number of ways to introduce coffee to beer. What was your technique?.

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This was my technique, if you can call it that:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=476140

I'm going to try sampling it with and without the salt before bottling. If I think it helps, I may split the batch and do a few test bottles with the salt and others without just to see what happens.

I don't have very high hopes for this batch as a whole. I probably got a bit too adventurous and bit off more than I can chew with this one.


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I believe salt will inhibit yeast some during bread baking, so would assume that it would do so in your beer to. Reason why I bring it up is that you might not get the carb level you were planning on if you do add salt to the bottles.

Indeed, excess salt will inhibit bread from proofing (was a baker for many years) ....I'd imagine you could very much end up with flat beer....or beer that tastes like piss...just sayin'

The old timers used to sprikle salt in there beer to kill the head. just made it more bitter to me. Like lion wizz...

Copied from your brew post:

1. Brew 34 oz. of coffee (actually, I used 34 oz. of water, so the coffee was probably a bit less)
2. Combine 1/3 cup of water with 8 grams (.28 oz.) gelatin (1 packet of Knox original unflavored)
3. Let the gelatin bloom (apx. 20 min)
4. Dissolve gelatin in the microwave (15 second blasts until clear)
5. Add gelatin mixture to the coffee in a separate bowl
6. Allow the mixture to partially set in the fridge (it won't set completely like jello)--I left it in overnight
7. Move mixture to the freezer
8. Leave in until frozen through
9. Approximately 2 days before brewing, move mixture to colinder lined with a muslin bag that is suspended over a bowl
10. Leave in fridge
11. The liquid at the bottom of the bowl should be your clear(ish) coffee
    Here's the brew plan:
12. Steep .5 lbs CaraPils and .25 lbs Crystal 40L (I'm substituting 40L for 10L because that's what I have on hand) at 150 F for 60 min.
13. Boil and add 3 lbs Extra Light DME
14. Add 1.5 oz. Columbus hops at 60 min.
15. Add 1.0 oz. Simcoe at 20 min.
16. Add 3 lbs Extra Light DME at 5 min.
17. Add 3 oz. clear coffee after flameout when temperature reaches 170 F (some say that boiling burns the coffee and 170 is an average temperature for coffee, so that's the thinking here)
18. Chill, move to primary, add water to bring to 5.5 gallons, pitch yeast
19. When fermentation ends, add 3 oz. whole beans for 3-4 days

Am I correct that you brewed about 34oz. of coffee, cleared it with gelatine, froze it, thawed it, then added 3oz. of the thawed coffee to your beer? Where did the other 31 oz. go?

That sounds like a lot of work, additionally you can clear the finished beer product with gelatin using a very similar method which may save you a step. (I personally don't see anything wrong with a little haze in a coffee beer). I am wondering if the freezing and thawing process of the coffee gave you a super strengthed coffee, kind of like an eisbock, which may have added more bitterness than desired.

Add 3 oz. clear coffee after flameout when temperature reaches 170 F (some say that boiling burns the coffee and 170 is an average temperature for coffee, so that's the thinking here)

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What do you mean by clear coffee? Were you trying to make some kind of coffee extract without any color?

Put me in the category of trying the salt BEFORE potentially ruining your batch. When I was a wee lad, my grandmother and my oldest uncles told me stories of being sent on beer runs with a pail (think 1930's). Now my grandma would send my uncles for beer. They told me they always used butter and "greased" the sides of the pail with butter and added some salt to kill the head. This would maximize the volume of beer they received with no foam. Funny as it sounds, I'd trust my late uncles on this. It will probably be a head killer, so experiment with it. I personally would not add it at bottling time.

WayFrae said:

What do you mean by clear coffee? Were you trying to make some kind of coffee extract without any color?

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After re-reading the link in the OP's recipe post about coffee, http://www.jacobgrier.com/blog/archives/3855.html, I think you are right. By clear, I was thinking not hazy, but being that this is a blond ale, I am guessing the OP wanted coffee flavor without the color. Now things are starting to make sense

Am still of the mind that adding salt before bottling very well might kill carbonation.....if ya wanna salt it, do so when pouring....guess if yer kegging and force carbing, won't matter but.....I'd work on the recipe before I'd salt the product..salted foods go good with beer, no need for salty beer

Another thing, I find that tasting the beer before it has carbonated and conditioned is often VERY different from the final product. I also would try the salt (if even needed) AFTER bottle conditioning.

Pie_Man said:

Am I correct that you brewed about 34oz. of coffee, cleared it with gelatine, froze it, thawed it, then added 3oz. of the thawed coffee to your beer? Where did the other 31 oz. go?.

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The link that I provided explained the process for getting "clear" coffee. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me--probably not enough gelatin. But to answer your question, yes, the yield was much lower than the 34 oz. that I started with. It also seemed a bit strong, but, like I said, I didn't do it right, so my results aren't necessarily representative of the actual result when it works.



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WayFrae said:

What do you mean by clear coffee? Were you trying to make some kind of coffee extract without any color?

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Yup, see the link I gave before describing the process (that didn't work for me as I mentioned in the follow-up post on the other thread).


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So I did a bit of a taste test. I took four samples of apx. 3oz. One was the control--I didn't add anything to it. The second I added 1/8 of a teaspoon of regular table salt. The third was just a dash of regular table salt. The fourth was a dash of pickling salt. Results:

1. Harsh bitter aftertaste.
2. Hash salt taste--clear loser, not an option.
3. Much less bitter, but some minor residual salty taste--it may have been just that I knew it was there.
4. Much less bitter, no noticeable salt taste.

So, I bottled as planned but put just a dash of the pickling salt in a handful of the bottles just to see what happens. I'll see how it all shakes out. Thanks to all for the input.


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I'll be interested to see your results. I think experimenting on a few bottles is a good method.

Here's a shot of the finished product. The "salted" version is on the left. The salt doesn't appear to have affected head retention much, if at all. But it also didn't significantly improve the beer. I do prefer the version with the pickling salt addition, but it's just degrees of failure really. The beer is drinkable, but that's about all that can be said for it.


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Well, you have contributed to brew knowledge. Thanks for sharing!