I ****ed this one up - I think I may have added too much Calcium Chloride.

[nrjones89]

I attempted a clone at Kostritzer. It was 48:42:5:5: Pilsen, Light Munich, Dehusked Carafa II, Carafoam, with Northern Brewer hops at 8.2% AA - half oz at 1 hour, half oz at 20ish minutes. I added 1 tsp yeast nutrient, 1/4 campden tab, 1/4 tsp Irish moss. Danstar Diamond Yeast. Here's where I think I ****ed up. I brewed 2 beers back to back, and this was the second one. So I was pretty drunk. It was a single step mash @ 152F, but for some reason I thought I needed to add some acidity due to the Munich... so I dumped at least a cup of calcium chloride in, which I did not even bother to measure.

The fermentation went fine around 54F and smelled sulphury like usual. When I kegged it a couple weeks later, I took a swig after force carbonating and I literally spit it out. It had an overbearing salty/malty flavor that I can't really describe. After a week in the keg, it still tasted bad. So I filtered it. It did not help. But it sat for a month and it is finally drinkable - just not that great.

I was talking to some homebrewers the other day who were certain it was the calcium chloride, pointing to Breckenridge as an example of a water profile that shares some similarities to what I experienced. Hopefully that was all. What do you think? I was put off of brewing for a while after being disappointed by this brew... but I finally did an oatmeal stout this weekend. If that's all it was, I will consider attempting this brew again!

 

[Smellyglove]

If it was salty and you dumped a load of CaCl into it then that's where the salt comes from.. Cacl tastes like salt.. And for adding acidity.. add acid, not salts

 

[balrog]

That would be approximately 1 cup, less a teaspoon, too much.

 

[chickypad]

That would be approximately 1 cup, less a teaspoon, too much.

That about sums it up. You added in the neighborhood of 50 times too much. I think we can safely say that was the culprit

 

[Rob2010SS]

No need to say it as others already have, but you are correct, that amount of calcium chloride is where you went wrong.

Just my 2 cents, but perhaps save the brewing for when you're NOT drunk? LOL

 

[z-bob]

Bottle it anyway, use it to dose the CaCl2 for your next 50 batches.

 

[day_trippr]

Holy cow

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Toss it out.

 

[shetc]

If it was salty and you dumped a load of CaCl into it then that's where the salt comes from.. Cacl tastes like salt.. And for adding acidity.. add acid, not salts

Salts also lowers pH

 

[nrjones89]

Yep. The whole reason I even bought it was because of the large chunk of Munich in the grainbill. My Fluval pH test kit did not show the right color for pH. So in a pinch, I dumped a mega****ton of calcium chloride in. Now I know! I don't want to dump it until I rebrew this recipe. I might have to unless I drink my lite lager first.

 

[nrjones89]

Just weighed my CaCl2 bag... apparently it was ~3oz added. Clearly labeled on the bag is "1 TEASPOON PER 5 GALLONS". And on that day, precisely 0 drunk ****s were given... And yes, I had a granule and immediately spit it out. That's what my beer tastes like. And it is 'salty', but not in the sense that you might think. I can see now why it is suggested that chlorides tend to bring out maltiness, if that makes sense.

 

[isomerization]

What no one wants to dissent on the consensus in this thread?

 

[Iseneye]

Holy crap. Haha that is a crazy amount of CaCl2.

In my early days of brewing I had some smaller mishaps (wrong hops) while drinking and brewing. Decided not to drink and brew after that. At least I can just blame myself when I make mistakes now rather than the beer.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]And yes, I had a granule and immediately spit it out. That's what my beer tastes like.

"Thoughts and prayers"

 

[nrjones89]

Of all the salts I have tasted CaCL2 is definitely the worst. Nothing is better than good ol' kosher table salt. KCl is a pretty close second... but neither drops pH, unfortunately. Definitely learned my lesson here.

I asked one of my homebrew buddies what he would do to fix the beer, and his reply was to "put a potato in it" LOL.

 

[applescrap]

Toss it out.

You are handling this awesome and thanks for the candid sharing. I have to agree, imo, if its super salty dont suffer man, just toss it. Or maybe enjoy its saltiness. If there is a rainbow you have inspired me to consider salting beer. I mean its so critical in cooking, I want to learn more about this. So at least you have that going for you.

 

[shetc]

Maybe you can tenderize meat with the beer. Brine something before slow cooking it.

 

[nrjones89]

LOL why not. I wouldn't try 'salting' beer. This is really just water chemistry gone wrong. Not sure if this is salty enough for tenderizing meat, but I might be able to wash my feet with it or something...

It really isn't drinkable. I tried to get through a pint tonight and could only stomach about 6-7 gulps.

Possibly the worst part about this is that it is kinda ruining other beers for me. I can definitely taste saltiness/minerals in other beers now. Great.

 

[isomerization]

Salts also lowers pH

Not true for all salts, something like CaCl2 will not alter the H+ content and will produce “spectator” ions instead.

 

[Rob2010SS]

You are handling this awesome and thanks for the candid sharing. I have to agree, imo, if its super salty dont suffer man, just toss it. Or maybe enjoy its saltiness. If there is a rainbow you have inspired me to consider salting beer. I mean its so critical in cooking, I want to learn more about this. So at least you have that going for you.

Make a Gose! I used 1oz in my last 5 gal of Gose. Next time I will do 1.25oz salt. The salt and the sour is nice

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Use it as a base for chili.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Not true for all salts, something like CaCl2 will not alter the H+ content and will produce “spectator” ions instead.

Kolbach, a German brewing scientist, found that the malt's phosphates react with the calcium and magnesium ions from the mash water [Fix, 1999]:

3Ca2+ + 2HPO42- <-> 2H+ + Ca3(PO4)2

This reaction releases 2 protons (H+) as well as calcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2) which is pretty much insoluble in wort and precipitates.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Residual_Alkalinity_illustrated

 

[isomerization]

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Residual_Alkalinity_illustrated

Fair enough, should have specified whether we were talking about mash conditions versus simply dissolved in water.

 

[shetc]

Fair enough, should have specified whether we were talking about mash conditions versus simply dissolved in water.

I was assuming during the mash as stated in the OP.

 

[applescrap]

Chilli!