So I bought some calcium chloride from NB in anticipation for my all grain brewing that should be happening after the holidays (assuming Santa read my wish list). I remember thinking when I ordered it, “Is this the same stuff that I salt my sidewalk with?” but bought some anyway thinking maybe there was a “food grade” version. It arrived yesterday and it sure looks exactly like the stuff I salt my sidewalk with. Could I just have saved a few bucks and used that or was I right in thinking that this is different or “cleaner” in some way?
I’d go with food grade for this, theres no telling what contaminants might be in the sidewalk salt. Mostly I’d be concerned about heavy metals.
Edited to add: they do sell this at Walmart in the canning section.
What tom said. While the little pellets of CaCl2 look the same the stuff for your driveway is not nearly as refined and almost certainly contains dirt and residual amounts of Cadmium, Strontium etc which you surely don’t want to drink.
Wowzer, I haven’t even ventured a guess it contained these elements when this has come up in the past. I figured dirt and other misc…
I was just going to add, if you haven’t seen before. Keep CaCl tightly sealed, as to prevent any moisture contamination. It should be loose and granular. If it is clumpy and stuck together you know it has absorbed tons of moisture as its highly hygroscopic.
[quote=“ITsPossible”][quote=“BryanH”]
I was just going to add, if you haven’t seen before. Keep CaCl tightly sealed, as to prevent any moisture contamination. It should be loose and granular. If it is clumpy and stuck together you know it has absorbed tons of moisture as its highly hygroscopic.[/quote][/quote]
Yup. That’s why chemists use it in desiccators.
