In brewing our 2nd go-round of a Heady Topper clone, we hit just about everything we were going for with our charcoal-filtered municipal water, untreated. We didn’t add any gypsum, but were wondering if we should do so after fermentation.
Water:
Ca - 25
Mg - 7
Na - 18
HCO3 - 88
Cl - 34
SO4 - 4
Total alkalinity 34
estimated bicarb - 87
total hardness 91
pH 7.9
we didn’t acidify the sparge either.
Slightly off topic pietro, but would you mind posting the recipe? I’ll let others with more water knowledge chime in. I typically just add mine to the mash.
What’s the sulfate level of your water? I’ve never added any salts after brewing but I would be worried about getting it evenly mixed in to the beer. This might be difficult to do without oxidation.
whoops, edited. Sulfate is 4ppm.
to add it, I would boil a cup of water (to drive out O2), stir in, chill, and add. We also may do it when warming up from the cold crash or as fermentation is still going (just raised it up to 72 yesterday).
google “bear flavored heady topper clone” for the recipe. He’s pretty darn close, but what sets the beer apart may be the dry hopping mechanism(s) and water, the latter of which we of course #&!@ed up.
I imagine that, after the mash, the risk outweighs the benefits but I’m interested to hear how it turns out if you do decide to do it. Maybe the fermentation itself is vigorous enough to mix in the salts (I know I just brewed with conan yeast and needed a blowoff tube) so it would just be a matter of dropping it in on top and letting the yeast mix it around for you.
(You posted as I typed this and I see that it’s already most of the way through the fermentation. Maybe transfer it off the yeast when you dry hop and have the additions in the bottom of that carboy so it mixes in?)
Wow actually just found this thread. It appears you can add it to the glass (and that one of the poster’s methods is similar to what I was thinking about).
I helped a friend fix a flabby BoPils with a post fermentation addition of gypsum. After adding ti a glass to determine how much to use (and I don’t recall what that was!), it was added to the leg for the rest of the batch.
I would like more info on this… whose leg? Is this a long term solution or is it possible to pee it out? How was it added? IV?
Just kiddin’ ya Denny! We love ya and I’m in vacation mode so I’m in a “mood.”
that is not a very hoppy water profile, you will be missing a lot of the crisp hop forward without adding salts
Ok thanks for all the replies. So if we add 1.5grams/gallon of gypsum, this will come out to 223.4ppm sulfate. Is this a moderately high (but suitable) level for a 1lb hop/5 gallon (plus hop extract) IIPA hop bomb, or should I be shooting for closer to/in excess of 300?
I’ve been pushing my sulfate level up to 275-300 on IPAs. The hop flavor and aroma has been very pronounced but hasn’t held up in the keg for very long. I believe due to low finishing pH as discussed in another thread.
From all my reading and research I think for a hop bomb you’d want to go to 300.
I would not go over 200, for my hop bombs I am usually aiming for 170-200 and love those results. But I would also not be adding gypsum to the beer I would just chalk it up to lesson learned and modify water profile next time
I have tried and tasted beers that go way over on the salt additions and they are horrible, minerally and taste like you are licking sheetrock
I’ve been unsuccessful in adding gypsum to a glass, post-fermentation (and post-carbonation). Gypsum does have a flavor in and of itself, and the beer+gypsum tasted just like beer+gypsum; it didn’t magically transform the beer, in my case, to something special. YMMV.
[quote=“dannyboy58”]I’ve been pushing my sulfate level up to 275-300 on IPAs. The hop flavor and aroma has been very pronounced but hasn’t held up in the keg for very long. I believe due to low finishing pH as discussed in another thread.
From all my reading and research I think for a hop bomb you’d want to go to 300.[/quote]
Hop Aroma usually doesnt last long, very fresh right away and even after a couple weeks you see a little fading and more after about 4 weeks after that I do not usually see a huge difference after that point from roughly 5 weeks to another month or two old. Keg is usually gone by then
Andrew did you just add it without dissolving it in something else? I wonder if we boil the addition for a bit if it will knock some of that out.
I’m thinking given grainbelts comment, we should aim for closer to 100, especially since its post-fermentation and the flavor will be more pronounced.
[quote=“Pietro”]Andrew did you just add it without dissolving it in something else? I wonder if we boil the addition for a bit if it will knock some of that out.
I’m thinking given grainbelts comment, we should aim for closer to 100, especially since its post-fermentation and the flavor will be more pronounced.[/quote]
not sure why you would want to do it, but if you do why not just to each serving?
as to why, my goal is to make the best beer possible (particularly when using 3lbs of hops plus 30ml of extract). And I guess for the whole keg(s), it would be for ease of consumption.
3lbs? is that 5g? If so that’s overkill
You can try but I would chalk it up to lesson learned, the beer is made, usually trying to adjust after the fact does not result in the best beer.
You are also going to want to do it to a serving to see how you like it, no?
no 3lbs in 14 gallons of finished beer. Note this includes dry hops, and the rest are knockout and hopstand.
I suppose there isn’t any difference in adding after trying it in a serving and adding it to the fermenter (except with the former, I can make sure the beer doesn’t really suck with the salt added).
[quote=“Pietro”]no 3lbs in 14 gallons of finished beer. Note this includes dry hops, and the rest are knockout and hopstand.
I suppose there isn’t any difference in adding after trying it in a serving and adding it to the fermenter (except with the former, I can make sure the beer doesn’t really suck with the salt added).[/quote]
Yep, if you are set on doing this, I would suggest doing it scaled down to a serving (or couple) and then if you are set you scale it back up to the keg/bottling amount. Otherwise you will not know what you are getting which seems a waste.
