How long does it take for them to work?
I crush an appropriate amount of tablet and add to my strike and sparge waters when I fire up my burner. In heating water, it’s almost instantaneous. You can literally smell the chlorine as it gasses off of the water.
:cheers:
Less than 30 seconds. It’s like a miracle. So cheap and easy and convenient.
It doesn’t ‘off-gas’ the chlorine. It converts the hypochlorite or chloramine to chloride. So you shouldn’t really smell any more chlorine than the water was originally off-gassing.
Using metabisulfite compounds (campden) for dechlorination is a no-brainer. It is so easy and fast. It is a very simple treatment step to better beer.
Just curious, what if any are the effects of over treating water. I use potassium metabisulfite and usually just dump 1/8t or so into 5 gallons of water. Sometimes I have to treat smaller amounts though, and it gets difficult to accurately measure the P-meta needed for 1 gallon. Havent noticed any ill effects, but wondering what they could potentially be. What’s the taste threshold for this stuff? Also, how long does it last? I’ve been using the same bag of p-meta for at least 3 years and probably have 20 years left before it runs out.
metabisulfite is broken down by heat. That breaks it down into its component ions. It is not really a big problem to overdose your water with either sodium metabisulfite or potassium metabisulfite. However, you would be adding either Na or K and Sulfate to the wort, so be prudent.
