Is it better to add calcium via gypsum or calcium cloride for a pilsner or a combination of both.
It depends on your goal. SO4 will accentuate hop bitterness, and Cl will supposedly yield more rounded malt flavors.
I am going for more of a munich helles. Still 100 percent pilsner malt but in the range of 15 to 20 ibu’s. So basically I should use all calcium chloride then.
Sounds right to me.
Depends on what your base water is like.
Assuming you need the calcium, I’d go with the chloride salt. With the low bitterness, you’ll want to accentuate the sweet pils malt flavor and the chloride flavor ion will do that.
To answer Denny my water is pretty soft. My water looks like this.
Sodium, Na 13
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 22
Magnesium, Mg 6
Total Hardness, CaCO3 80
Nitrate, NO3-N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S < 1
Chloride, Cl 21
Carbonate, CO3 < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3 85
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 70
My bicarbonates are a little high for the style and I have used acid to reduce my ph a bit. I have made a munich helles with this water before and didn’t notice any after taste but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. For my calcium I used a split between gypsum and cloride. I am thinking about diluting my next batch with RO and using all cloride to raise calcium to see if I notice any difference.
