How important is the gypsum?
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You should never use gypsum unless you need it, and you almost certainly don't need it.
It really depends on your water chemistry, but a small amount of gypsum add calcium and sulfate to your water. Sulfate is what makes hops bittering taste more crisp and forward. I would never use it in a porter, but I have used it in hoppy pale ales and IPAs.
If you don't know your water chemistry, adding gypsum is like adding salt to your food without ever tasting it first. It might be needed, but probably not.
Another point about gypsum/salts is that if you are brewing with extracts it is almost guaranteed that they are unnecessary. The extract is nothing more than a wort already made, and will(should) contain all of the minerals necessary for the beer to come out as it should.
Yooper's point about adding salt to food without tasting it first is spot on. On my first batch, I added a tsp (instead of the Tbsp called for, thank goodness!) because I read that it brought out the crispness of the hops and it was in a few of the recipes I tweaked and merged for Batch #1. Wanna guess how it came out? Decent-ish...but over-salted.
Moral of the story: keep it simple first. maybe try to add a touch later if you're curious about what it does to your beer when you go back and brew a recipe a second time. If you have no baseline to compare it to yet, then you'll never know what it does when you add it...
Yooper's point about adding salt to food without tasting it first is spot on. On my first batch, I added a tsp (instead of the Tbsp called for, thank goodness!) because I read that it brought out the crispness of the hops and it was in a few of the recipes I tweaked and merged for Batch #1. Wanna guess how it came out? Decent-ish...but over-salted.
Moral of the story: keep it simple first. maybe try to add a touch later if you're curious about what it does to your beer when you go back and brew a recipe a second time. If you have no baseline to compare it to yet, then you'll never know what it does when you add it...
Agreed. It's all about your water chemistry. And as neosapien noted, they really are not necessary for extracts ... they are really only needed for all-grain brews to help bring the water hardness and pH to the appropriate levels to give you an efficient mash and a more to-style taste.
If you are doing all-grain, or moving that way soon, talk to local brewers in your area, or your local HBS, and see what they do. Don't use any more than you need, and be careful. A little goes a long way.
Finally, for what it's worth, I usually use gypsum when needed in hoppy beer, but I wouldn't do straight gypsum in a porter. For a malty beer like a porter or stout, I use a combination of about 75% calcium chloride and 25% gypsum. I find the gypsum gives an astringency that plays better with hops than it does with malt-forward beers.
If you are doing all-grain, or moving that way soon, talk to local brewers in your area, or your local HBS, and see what they do. Don't use any more than you need, and be careful. A little goes a long way.
Finally, for what it's worth, I usually use gypsum when needed in hoppy beer, but I wouldn't do straight gypsum in a porter. For a malty beer like a porter or stout, I use a combination of about 75% calcium chloride and 25% gypsum. I find the gypsum gives an astringency that plays better with hops than it does with malt-forward beers.
Too much calcium can actually thin the taste of the beer and you could lose some hop utilazation also if in excess which depends on the water you start with.I use very small amounts,and make shure my mash is within a good ph. Ive been using yeast energizer more and brewing salts less lately its still under investigation for me though.I noticed i used it with dry yeast for the first time and it shure looked like very thick krausen-for whatever that means-but i know its making beer.
