how to add Potassium (K) to beer?

Hey all

I recently saw a commercial beer profile where the potassium (K) amount read 1226 PPM. Looking at my water profile I only have 2 ppm of potassium. How would I achieve the higher amount? I realize that this question might bring some responses such as, "you don't need it," but any help to my question would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Are you sure that is correct? Seawater has 400ppm of potassium

100% correct

This is the total report:

pH 4.5
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 1698
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 2.83
Cations / Anions, me/L 43.6 / 20.8
ppm
Sodium, Na 40
Potassium, K 1226
Calcium, Ca 34
Magnesium, Mg 105
Total Hardness, CaCO3 523
Nitrate, NO3-N 8.0 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 112
Chloride, Cl 421
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 73
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 60
Total Phosphorus, P 319.40
Total Iron, Fe 0.18

Try calling/emailing the brewery.

Have you tasted this beer? What is it? I'm curious about how it's marketed.

I actually forgot the name of the brewery because they're super small. I got the sample from an event near my house. It's an IPA and it was incredibly smooth, light, fluffy mouth feel.

Isn't that much magnesium enough cause a 'sour' flavor? I've always been told to keep the magnesium below 30 ppm due to the flavor impact.

I know that magnesium has some, um, gastro-intestinal effects, but I have no idea how much magnesium would be needed for a laxative effect.

I would think that water would give a very strong "minerally" flavor, due to the extraordinarily high chloride and magnesium, at the very least.

If the added salt is potassium chloride, it would add some bitterness to the beer. KCl is marketed as an alternative to table salt, but it has a bitter twang. However, 1226 ppm sounds way off the charts. Is that even good for yeast health? Perhaps the report had a typo-- forgot a decimal point or they meant ppb?

Maybe Martin or A.J. will jump in here and shed some light.

Edit: Just noticed the magnesium...holy cats, that's a lot. And what's up with the 319 ppm of phosphorus? Did that brewery add lawn fertilizer to the mash?

It's probably worth a call to the organizers of that event you went to in order to try and ID the brewery.

Actually isn't potassium in malt? That could be where the high numbers are coming from, no?

ryancrook said:

Actually isn't potassium in malt? That could be where the high numbers are coming from, no?

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Are you saying those numbers you posted are from the wort or finished beer, and not the mash water?

Yeah, sorry for not clarifying. This is a finished beer.

From memory comparing water profiles to finished beer is not well understood. IIRC The elusive smooth character is mainly to do with yeast strain providing the silkiness and whirlpool hopping providing softer bitterness. Hopefully the pros chime in but from what I can tell, the Ward test for K is electrical conductivity, so I doubt a ppm figure.

I supplement with K. You can get potassium bicarbonate at LHBS but doubt you would you want it in pale beer. KCl would be interesting to try. Be careful, K regulates heart rate... For that reason, I seriously doubt a brewer would add it, but it could be the holy grail for all I know.

Malt provides a large ionic content, including K, Ca, Mg, and P. The reported levels are not out of line for beer, but would be compounded if you started with those levels in the brewing water.

ryancrook said:

Hey all

I recently saw a commercial beer profile where the potassium (K) amount read 1226 PPM. Looking at my water profile I only have 2 ppm of potassium. How would I achieve the higher amount?

Click to expand...

Well first, and most important, be sure to use potassium from Kazakhstan. All other nations have inferior potassium.

That aside it is clear that this was a Ward Labs analysis of a finished beer. Barley (.52% = 5.2 grams/kg) and malt (.36% = 3.6 g/kg) contains a lot of potassium, even when grown in countries run by little girls. A lot of this makes it through to the beer. HBS&Y mention ranges of 330 - 1100 mg/L in British beers, 396 - 552 in German beers and 2563 - 680 in lagers. So I guess the answer to your question is that you should use a malt which assays to a higher level of potassium than what you are using.

Does malt contribute much at all to sulfate or chloride?

ryancrook said:

Yeah, sorry for not clarifying. This is a finished beer.

Click to expand...

Oh! Well, then, never mind. I thought it was a water profile.

A finished beer profile is a whole different ball game, from composition to pH.

sorry that I misunderstood, and please ignore my water thoughts.

zwiller said:

Does malt contribute much at all to sulfate or chloride?

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I don't have a very good answer there especially WRT chloride. I'm sure malt contains some but the fact that it isn't mention in tables of minerals usually found in malt tells me that it must be at levels appreciably lower than those at which the metal ions are found.

Malt contains lots of sulfur (0.16%) by weight but it is in many compounds (such as sulfur containing amino acids). As beer is very much in a reduced state a good part of the sulfur that didn't get expelled as DMS winds up as SO2 (sulfite) rather than sulfate but, of course, many beers contains a lot of sulfate because the brewer has loaded it in there.

Does yeast actually eat up the amount of calcium in wort? For example if you have 150ppm of calcium pre-fermentation would that number go down to 50ppm post-fermentation?

Calcium is doubtless a cofactor for some enzyme or enzymes of yeast but AFAIK yeast don't 'consume' calcium in the usual sense. One can start with pretty hard (lots of calcium) water and wind up with a relatively soft beer as calcium is precipitated at several stages in the brewing process. In the mash tun and kettle calcium is chelated by phosphate and falls out. In the kettle certain proteins complex with it and precipitate. In the fermenter calcium oxalate precipitates.

ryancrook said:

I actually forgot the name of the brewery because they're super small. I got the sample from an event near my house. It's an IPA and it was incredibly smooth, light, fluffy mouth feel.

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Does Hill Farmstead ring a bell?

If malt does not contribute notably to chloride than I suspect chloride supplementation in this beer. Whether it be potassium chloride or CaCl or both? I still don't think it is the "magic" of these VT beers. Maybe a part of the equation tho...

I'm definitely going to try the 1:4 sulfate:chloride ratio, using the numbers from the analysis to see how different the end result is. I'm going to use a recipe I've used before so I can better tell how the change will affect the beer.

Will that be 1 mg/L SO4-- and 4 mg/L Cl- or 100 mg/L SO4-- and 400 mg/L Cl-?

100 mg/L SO4-- and 400 mg/L Cl

Well make it a small batch then.

ryancrook said:

Hey all

I recently saw a commercial beer profile where the potassium (K) amount read 1226 PPM. Looking at my water profile I only have 2 ppm of potassium. How would I achieve the higher amount? I realize that this question might bring some responses such as, "you don't need it," but any help to my question would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Using Potassium Chloride or Potassium Hydroxide you would certainly be able to build a water profile with elevated levels of potassium though you would need to know what the malt is contributing to reach a specific level.

"Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers" discusses potassium in beer.

https://books.google.com/books?id=_...e&q=adding potassium chloride to beer&f=false

rti said:

Using Potassium Chloride or Potassium Hydroxide you would certainly be able to build a water profile with elevated levels of potassium though you would need to know what the malt is contributing to reach a specific level.

"Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers" discusses potassium in beer.

https://books.google.com/books?id=_...e&q=adding potassium chloride to beer&f=false

Click to expand...

Excellent, thank you! I'm thinking of sending in a sample of my own finished beer to see how much it can contribute. Possibly only using 2-row to keep things simple.