Potassium Metabisulfite - Boil ?

[dallasd9]

Is it absolutely necessary to boil water to remove Chlorine when using Potassium Metabisulfite? Or can I just add it to my container and let it sit for a couple days. The reason I ask is I'm going to try one of More Beer's new Flash Brew kit that does not require boiling.

Thanks

 

[fluketamer]

i never heard of boiling it . as per google you just add it and stir and wait

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

In BeerSmith Podcast #309 ('Flash Brewing with Chris Graham') starting at around 21:00, a couple of experienced brewer 'faults' are mentioned.

remove Chlorine when using Potassium Metabisulfite

One of the faults was using campden tablets (sodium metabisulfite) with tap water. There is some discussion (specific off flavors were mentioned, alternative aproaches were mentioned).

I brew with RO water, so I'm just passing along a source of information for 'tap water' kit hacks (and faults).

 

[Bassman2003]

Sulfites and yeast when put together can create excess sulfur. The way around this is to oxygenate right before pitching which expends the sulfites and turns then into sulfates which do not create the off flavors. Boiling does not affect sulfites.

 

[refect]

My tap water is pretty hard, so I always cut it with distilled water and then build it to where I want. Generally, chlorine will boil off rather quickly. It will also evaporate out of room temperature water if you let it sit open to air. However, I am not sure how long it would take to evaporate naturally. It all depends on the amount of water. Could be 1 day or several days.

For a 5 fallon batch, I always add half of a campden tablet to my strike water prior to heating it. I crush it up, dump it in, and stir well. I am not 100% sure if I have chloramine in my tap water, but that does not evaporate out and can not be removed from boiling. Adding the half campden tablet is cheap insurance for me and I have never noticed any sulfur or off flavors from it.

 

[Tony B]

I’m in San Diego. Tap water here is very hard. Disgusting actually.
When I first started brewing I was using filtered tap water and adding a half crushed campden tablet to the strike water a half hour or so before heating and didn’t detect any issues. I have since switched to RO water.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Back in #1, OP mentioned OP mentioned "Flash Brewing" kit.

The series of "Flash Brewing" kits, from MoreBeer, was launched earlier in 2024.

With these kits, there is

• no heating (or boiling) of the water,
• no mashing or sparging to create wort and
• a recommendation to use "RO (Reverse Osmosis), Distilled, or Spring Water".

For experienced brewers, a possible simplification of the process is to use treated tap water. Unfortunately, treated tap water appears to result in off flavors in some situations (see #3).

 

[dmtaylor]

This is an instantaneous chemical reaction. You don't need to boil, and you don't need to wait. As long as the bisulfite is well mixed, you can use the water immediately.

Cheers.

 

[Witherby]

This is an instantaneous chemical reaction. You don't need to boil, and you don't need to wait. As long as the bisulfite is well mixed, you can use the water immediately.

Cheers.

More details here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/campden-tablets-sulfites-and-brewing-water.361073/

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I have heard it repeated a few times that you "need" to boil the water when treating with Metabisulfite. I think the first I heard of this was one of the MoreBeer videos, and others that have said this might just echoing that info. It might be that if you are not boiling, you should pay more attention to the "1 tablet per 20 gallons" dosing recommendation vs just tossing in a tablet into 5 gallons of water, but that is just my speculation.

For a batch of hop water, I treated my tap water with "CellarScience® Oxblox 3D | Dissolved Oxygen Reducer" at the rate of 0.2g per gallon (the low end of the recommendation). That batch had a strong "campden tablet" flavor and was a dumper. I have since backed that off to 0.05g per gallon (or about 0.3 g per batch) with good results. I am not sure that the Oxblox 3D is needed or helps, but I thought it might be a good way to remove the chlorine/chloramine in my tap and might lower the oxygen in my hop water (which is not boiled).

I have read that a very small amount of Ascorbic Acid will also remove chlorine/chloramine. It has been hard to find much info that is focused on brewing. A post in this thread indicated that 50mg would treat 5 gallons of water (0.05g...which is a smaller amount than my jeweler's scale will even register.) :

A more in-depth paper on Ascorbic Acid: https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/pdf/hi_res/05231301hi.pdf

So maybe just "add 1g of Ascorbic Acid to your mash water" should be common advice...or maybe add 3-5g if you believe that Ascorbic Acid also helps to reduce oxidation/staling.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

More details here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/campden-tablets-sulfites-and-brewing-water.361073/

I see that this post has some info on Ascorbic Acid and does not recommend its usage. AJ knows much more about water and chemistry than I do, but given the common use of Ascorbic Acid these days (with people reporting positive results of using it both in the mash and at packaging to reduce oxidation), I am not sure the info there would convince me to not use Ascorbic Acid.

 

[mashdar]

For a batch of hop water, I treated my tap water with "CellarScience® Oxblox 3D | Dissolved Oxygen Reducer" at the rate of 0.2g per gallon (the low end of the recommendation). That batch had a strong "campden tablet" flavor and was a dumper.

That product has tannins that may need a boil to precipitate?

If it's 1/3 kmeta by weight, that's about 10ppm sulfite, which is below the supposed sensory threshold of 20ppm. You could always be particularly sensitive to it, but maybe it was the other ingredients? I couldn't find threshold information for ascorbic acid and gallotannins.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

That product has tannins that may need a boil to precipitate?

If it's 1/3 kmeta by weight, that's about 10ppm sulfite, which is below the supposed sensory threshold of 20ppm. You could always be particularly sensitive to it, but maybe it was the other ingredients? I couldn't find threshold information for ascorbic acid and gallotannins.

Yeah, the product page does not say much about the ingredients ("blend of gallotannins, ascorbic acid, and metabisulphite"). The only campden tablets and powder that I have used are potassium metabisulphite. The hop water tasted like what a crushed campden tablet smells like. It was not a sulfur taste. It could be the potassium component which I see "Its taste can be described as metallic, bitter or salty." Maybe using sodium metabisulphite would have less impact??

 

[MaxStout]

Yeah, the product page does not say much about the ingredients ("blend of gallotannins, ascorbic acid, and metabisulphite"). The only campden tablets and powder that I have used are potassium metabisulphite. The hop water tasted like what a crushed campden tablet smells like. It was not a sulfur taste. It could be the potassium component which I see "Its taste can be described as metallic, bitter or salty." Maybe using sodium metabisulphite would have less impact??

That sounds like the LODO "trifecta"--Brewtan B (gallotannins) + ascorbic acid + sodium metabisulfite. I use it in my mash and I have noticed a positive effect. I recall reading about the trifecta and that sodium meta should be used instead of potassium, to avoid that bitter, metallic flavor you mentioned.

I bottle, so I also add 10 ppm AA and sodium meta in the bottling bucket, to help scavenge some of the DO.