Less Campden = Better FG

[RunBikeBrew]

Hope this helps somebody...

I've always had a problem getting my beers to finish dry enough. I would routinely end up with FG's over 1.020. I have great temp control and add a few seconds of oxygen before pitching.

Since we have a lot of chloramine in our water, I have always used Campden tablets (early batches without campden had bad taste). Up until now, I've used one crushed tablet in the mash water (~5gal) and one tablet in the sparge water (~4gal). I was suspicious that this might be a problem, as I understand wine making folks use campden to stop fermentation.

My last batch, I reduced campden to 1/4 tablet in the mash water and 1/4 tablet in the sparge water. All other parameters were as before. I hit my FG spot-on (1.015). Sample doesn't seem to have the bad taste from chloramine (but time will tell). Granted, this wasn't an "official" scientific experiment, but my results seem pretty clear.

 

[bobbrewedit]

First of all...great name. It really surprises me how many brewers are into running and exercise.

Now, on to your post. I would say give it a least 5 batches and you might be on to something...I don't use the tablets, so I have no experience with them. But only one batch is pretty far from being clear results IMHO.

 

[iBrewR]

The manufacture recommendation is 1 tablet for 20 gallons when being used for chlorine and chloramine,

so yes, you were using too much.

 

[pabloj13]

Yeah that was way, way too much. My water has chloramine. I use 1/4 tablet per the directions and it works great.

 

[bobbrewedit]

My tap water has chloramine, I don't use anything to treat it and have never had any issues.

 

[jtejedor]

Wouldn't it just get boiled off when you boiled the wort?

 

[Yooper]

I was suspicious that this might be a problem, as I understand wine making folks use campden to stop fermentation.

I've heard that too, especially here on the forum.

But I have no idea where that idea comes from! I've been a winemaker for many years, and have much more experience with wine than beer. Campden does NOT inhibit brewer's yeast, nor wine yeast. That's why winemakers use it. You can use it as an antioxidant, in a fairly high dose, without even affecting the yeast.

In order to use enough campden to stun or kill the yeast, you'd have to use so much in the wine that the wine would be undrinkable.

Winemakers routinely use 50-90 ppm in their wine, and more than that for sanitizing.

 

[Herky21]

The manufacture recommendation is 1 tablet for 20 gallons when being used for chlorine and chloramine,

so yes, you were using too much.

that depends on the manufacturer (how many mgs are your tablets) and your water content. The product I buy is 1 tablet per gallon (reduces by 30 ppm) and the water I work with has chlorine and chloramine at about 1.19 mg/l.

 

[pabloj13]

Wouldn't it just get boiled off when you boiled the wort?

No. Not to rehash this debate again, but chlorine boils off with a short half-life. Chloramine has a much longer half life. It doesn't take much chloramine to get bandaid flavor. A jar of Campden tabs is like $4 which is enough for hundreds of batches.

 

[iBrewR]

Crosby & Baker 2 ounce tablets

Question: I have purchased your “Campden Tablets 2 Ounces” for the purpose of removing chlorine and chloramine from brewing water. I am having some confusion in finding the amount to use. I’ve seen many references that say 1 tablet for 20 gallons when used for this purpose, but they also say that one tablet per gallon contributes about 67 ppm sulfur dioxide. Your label says that your tablets will provide 30 ppm when used in one gallon. That's about half of the concentration of SO2. Does this mean that I need two of your tablets in 20 gallons of brewing water when using them for removing chlorine and chloramine? Thanks for your help

Answer: There are two measurements here, the measure weight of sulfur dioxide based on the amount of potassium metabisulphite in the tablet and the actual level of active or FREE sulphur dioxide that is available once its in solution. The calculation varies depending on what book you read but in general its over 50%. So if the measure weight is 67ppm then the available active or FREE sulphur dioxide is around 30-33 ppm. Our labels state that we are giving you the FREE sulphur dioxide measurement as most books use this calculation in killing bacteria.

So, you only need one tablet to treat 20 gallons to remove chlorine and chloramine from brewing water.

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