Can I add Calcium Chloride to a kegged beer?

[lalnx]

SO, I have been having an issue with my beers, and decided it has to be due to my water. Darker beers with less hops, not as noticeable, but hop forward IPA/APA it became a huge issue. These beers have loads of late addition hops, along with a 60m bittering addition, finished beers have been very bitter, and a little astringent. What I am going to point my finger at is my sulfate to Chloride ratio, sulfate 91, chloride 3. Going forward I will be adding Calcium Chloride to my water, (6.5g) for my process will put me at 1:1, which is where I would like to start my baseline. Here is my question, if I were to add 5g Calcium Chloride to my kegged beer will it lesson the bitterness perception making it more palatable, or has that horse already left the barn. Basically does that chloride level have the effect on hop extraction level, or perception of the hop extraction? If it is perception it seems as though the keg addition could help the beer.

Thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

 

[BobBailey]

Yes, you can. Seasoning the beer is just fine after kegging, as is adjusting pH. Just be sure to dissolve the salts in water water first or you might create a volcanic event.

 

[balrog]

...and to add to that, it is always heartily recommended that you figure out how to make a solution that will have the same concentration, and dose JUST A GLASS OF BEER before trying on the whole keg. Ounce of prevention and all that.

 

[couchsending]

Sorry but that’s not the reason for bitterness and astringency.

Are you checking ph? Are you using RO water?

Adding CaCl won’t solve bitterness/astringency issues. You actually couldn’t add much to finished beer to fix that. Starts with process changes up stream which you can change however.

 

[Iseneye]

Yeah cacl has nothing to do with your issue.

 

[ajdelange]

Adding chloride will mellow/sweeten the beer a bit and thus ameliorate the bitterness perception some what but don't hold your breath. It has already been suggested that you try this on a glass first rather than a whole keg. That's a very good suggestion.

 

[lalnx]

I'm going to give it a try tonight in a glass, I have some Calcium Chloride liquid from cheese making, and will give that a try. If it helps, I will dose the keg with some. I also found I have High Magnesium, which I can't do anything about except dilute my water from here on out, which I was hoping to avoid.

 

[ajdelange]

You can reduce magnesium somewhat by lime or lye treatment but dilution with RO is certainly easier.

 

[lalnx]

For future brews, here is my water.

Dilute 50%, add 2.5g gypsum, and 6g Calcium Chloride, I end up here.

mash with 3oz Acidulated Malt

 

[lalnx]

Finally following up, (pet peeve of mine when people don't follow up on posts). I added some Calcium Chloride solution to a glass of beer, and it helped. So, just went ahead and added 5g of granules to a cup off water, added it to the keg, shook well. Results, noticeable improvement, but still an awful beer. It is an APA Awful Pale Ale. it will stay in the kegerator until I have a replacement for it, if it doesn't improve with age, it will get distilled! I think there were multiple factors at play.

1) Used to much pacific gem as bittering addition, and now remembered that I hate Pacific Gems bitterness flavor.
2) Got more bitterness from my Flame out, and whirlpool additions than expected.
3) sulfate to Chloride ratio
4) Magnesium level of 41.7

 

[balrog]

That *is* a load of Mg. Tru dat.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

SO, I have been having an issue with my....hop forward IPA/APA. These beers have loads of late addition hops, along with a 60m bittering addition, finished beers have been very bitter, and a little astringent...

Not knowing the details of your recipe I can suggest omitting the 60m hop addition next time as a good starting place to address the bitterness issue you described. Another thing to look at in recipe design is the bitterness to gravity ratio, or BU:GU.

 

[couchsending]

So does 3oz of acid malt get you to the correct mash pH? Are you adjusting the pH of your sparge water
with acid to 5.4ish?

You mention astringency. If the bitterness you're tasting is at the back of your palate then that's more
astringency then bitterness due to IBUs. High IBU bitterness with the correct water and pH parameters
should appear at the front of your palate but shouldn't linger.

If your mash pH is on the high end cause you still have a decent amount of alkalinity even after dilution
and you're not adjusting your sparge water pH, then pH is increasing as you sparge and you're extracting
tannins from the malt. This is the most common cause of astringency in lighter beers. Chances are
also good that the pH of the wort in your kettle is also high. Higher pH of the wort in the boil equals a
rougher/increased bitterness. Ideally you're looking for a wort pH of 5.2-5.4 at the start of the boil.

 

[lalnx]

Historically I haven't adjusted water/mash at all. Going forward, I am going to make some adjustments. In my above #9 post, I show a couple screen shots from EZ_water, and what I will likely try at first. The 3oz acidulated malt was supposed to bring my mash PH to 5.49 per EZ_water spreadsheet.

 

[couchsending]

If you’re not going to adjust your sparge water I’d add some more acid malt to get your mash pH down a bit farther. That way as you’re sparging if it does rise it won’t go to high.

 

[lalnx]

Thanks, Punching in my grains for a typical pale beer to EZ_Water, It looks like I can go up to 5-6oz, acid malt to get me around 5.38-5.4. This keeps me under their recommended 3% ceiling for acid malt addition.
I hadn't brewed in over 2 years, don't know if my water has changed some, or I never noticed it much before. My first beer back brewing was brewed @ thanksgiving time, Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter, which I oak aged. Crazy good flavors (toasted coconut), Entered it into competition, scored 38, but got dinged as having a slight astringency. The roasted malts had probably helped that one, but still likely would have benefited from some additional acid.