Hot Break / CaCl2 additions

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jyda

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
150
Reaction score
4
Location
Folsom, CA
Hello,

In the May-June 2012 issue of BYO they have a comment in the Tripel recipe as such:

Boil until your hot break appears, then examine it. If it appears as big, fluffy, "snowflake-like" flakes, then proceed with boil. If it consists of tiny granules of break material (or if you measure the wort pH and it is above 5.2), add 1/4 tsp. CaC12.

This is the first time I have heard a recommendation like this, and I do not think I've ever saw a distinction in the hot break as above.

Can someone help me understand what causes the recommendation above, and how CaCl2 would affect this? Also, using the primer, would I need to be concerned with this distinction?

Thanks!
 
Calcium promotes break formation as does low boil pH. Adding some calcium chloride will clearly boost the calcium but it is not likely to decrease boil pH much unless the mash water was calcium poor so that the pH lowering calcium/phosphate reaction could not complete normally in the mash. Another possibility would be that bicarbonate/carbonate is being carried into the boil because mash pH was too high. Some of this could precipitate with calcium.

The Primer is designed to get you into the ball park. Fine tuning, e.g. as in kettle pH here is something that will have to be done independently. Everyone should have a pH meter and everyone should check kettle pH as well as mash pH. Not everyone does.
 
That makes sense, thanks for the info.

So, following the primer, what kind of adjustments should be made at the kettle if I'm above 5.2? I don't see how adding CaCl2 is going to affect that.

Or are they recommending the CaCl2 not to reduce the pH, but instead to simply help with the break formation?

Are there other considerations for having pH above 5.2 in the kettle?

Sorry for all the questions.
 
So, following the primer, what kind of adjustments should be made at the kettle if I'm above 5.2? I don't see how adding CaCl2 is going to affect that.

Neither do I. The primer recommendation puts plenty of calcium into the mash. Thus adding additional calcium salts probably won't effect mash pH but may help in protein coagulation. This is not something I usually worry about but as this author obviously does he must know something and I would pay attention to what he says.

Or are they recommending the CaCl2 not to reduce the pH, but instead to simply help with the break formation?
Don't know but I suspect this is the case.

Are there other considerations for having pH above 5.2 in the kettle?

While there are perhaps fewer and less strongly held opinions as to what kettle pH should be most of the authors I can think of recommend that the boil finish between 5.0 and 5.2 (trusting my memory here). I've certainly done many a beer where the boil has finished at pH 5.3 or even a bit higher and so perhaps boil pH isn't as critical as mash pH.
[/QUOTE]
 
Thank you again, it makes sense. I'll add boil pH and break observations to my brew notes and see if I can see a trend in output.
 
An interesting side note. As I have been working to get my mash pH in the right area, and taking boil pH (15 mins into boil) as well as hot break, I've notices the closer I get to a proper mash pH the closer to under 5.3 boil pH and a very noticeable difference in hot break.

My mot recent kolsch, which has used the same grist in the last 8 batches while I figure out the mash pH, had a mash pH of 5.4. At boil I had 5.2 and the hot break was drastically different. Huge fluffy/pillowy clumps churning about.

Perhaps that's part of why the boil pH is less emphasized as if you hit a good mash pH your boil falls inline.
 
Perhaps that's part of why the boil pH is less emphasized as if you hit a good mash pH your boil falls inline.

Yes, that's absolutely true and I usually try to make that point when preaching proper mash tun pH. And it goes on from there. If your kettle pH is proper your fermentation pH will be and so will the final pH of the beer. There are doubtless exceptions to this but the golden rule is definitely 'Get mash pH right'.
 
Back
Top