dry hopping and salt

[noobrewer]

I have a batch of Cincinnati Pale Ale that is going into the secondary soon. I would like to dry hop it for more aroma so I was going to use 1/2 oz of cascades. The beer right now tastes very bitter (I used alot of nugget hops in the boil). An old WWII vet told me his dad would make beer during the prohibition (very cool) and would add salt to the bottle before adding the beer. "How to Brew" says to add salt to define sweetness. Would adding salt help to balance out the bitterness in my beer? If so, when should I add it? I was thinking about adding it when I dry hop so it gets mixed well, but again, not sure... thanks!

 

[Funkenjaeger]

Adding salt sounds like a bad idea, IMHO. At the very least, you should test it out by adding some to a sample of the beer before you go adding it to the whole batch.

Beer almost always tastes quite a bit different when it's uncarbonated and young, as it comes out of the fermenter, compared to after it's been bottled, carbonated and conditioned... So if you go taking drastic measures to change the flavor now based on the flat beer from the fermenter, you may be unpleasantly surprised after it's been bottled for a while.

 

[Dr Vorlauf]

I have a batch of Cincinnati Pale Ale that is going into the secondary soon. I would like to dry hop it for more aroma so I was going to use 1/2 oz of cascades. The beer right now tastes very bitter (I used alot of nugget hops in the boil). An old WWII vet told me his dad would make beer during the prohibition (very cool) and would add salt to the bottle before adding the beer. "How to Brew" says to add salt to define sweetness. Would adding salt help to balance out the bitterness in my beer? If so, when should I add it? I was thinking about adding it when I dry hop so it gets mixed well, but again, not sure... thanks!

try taking a glass of beer and adding salt to it first and then decide if you want that for your brew.

 

[chase]

This is actually something we used to do to my dad when I was kid.

He would always poor his beer and then go wash his hands before dinner. To play a joke on him, we would add a pinch of salt to it. He would sit down and take a swig and then spit it right back into the cup. It has been played on me before too, and man, all I can say is, DON'T PUT SALT IN YOUR BEER. That ****'s nasty.

 

[Chello]

my friends dad actually puts salt in every beer he has. There not homebrews, just whatever commercial beer he has he adds a pinch of salt to it.

 

[Danek]

Funkenjaeger's right that young beer tastes very different to ripe beer. I made a pale ale that after two weeks in primary tasted so horribly bitter I thought I'd ruined it. Three weeks later it's much, much better. Hard to believe it's the same beer.

That said, I'm curious to know what adding salt would do. I think you should add salt, but only as part of a controlled experiment. Split your batch into two halves, and add salt to one half. That'll give you an index of which changes are due to salt, and which are due to maturing beer. You never know, if it comes out well we might all be adding salt next year.

OT, personally I'd add more cascades for dry hopping, but that might just be me.

 

[uglygoat]

my old man, and his before him used to put salt in old flat beers, but that was more to give it the apperance of being carbonated.

it was also something i saw a lot of in west virginia when i lived there.

 

[shafferpilot]

I know a bunch of construction workers who insisted on putting salt in their beer. They said they sweat so much at work that they had to replace the salt they were losing. Of course just about everything else that came out of these guys mouths was loaded with BS and TONS of faulty scientific reasoning so I don't expect that this theory was any different.

 

[malkore]

my dad only put salt in his beer when we'd eat at pizza hut (like 2 decades ago). Never anywhere else.

but he's a strict bud light drinker, so what does he know about beer?

 

[TexLaw]

My beers always seem more bitter when coming out of the secondary. In some cases, it's even pretty harsh. Get them carbonated and conditioned for a couple weeks or a few, and they come together much better.


TL

 

[kinison_fan]

In Mexico and some border towns (i.e. Juarez/El Paso), there is a drink called a "Michulada" (spelling is probably wrong). It is: beer, ice, lime or lemon juice, and salt. Kind of a Beergarita. They are actually quite good on a hot summer day.

Also, (before the Corona craze in the US) when your ordered Tecate they were typically served with a of bowl limes. It was common to squeeze the lime in and then salt it. The salt was a balance to the sour limes.

But I don't think I would salt a "regular" beer.

 

[jmiracle]

I was at a Mexican restaurant and ordered a Negra Modelo, for some reason it came with a frosty mug with salt around the rim and a lime. I thought it was pretty gross. I just don't think salty goes with beer other than eating peanuts or pretzels with it.

 

[Jesse17]

I worked with a guy who salted his glass of beer, to disipate the head. Silly, silly, guy.

 

[Radarbrew]

My mom used to do that. I asked her why, and she told me the beer tasted better if you do. I didn't think so.

 

[Joker]

I have known people to put lime and salt into Corona. I asked them if it made it taste more like piss. :rockin: