Baguette Beer Water Help

[Hop_on_the_good_foot]

Hi.

I have a strong desire to succeed in making a beer with a portion of the grist consisting of old baguettes. Essentially I work in the hotel business in France and we have a lot of wastage, so like any reasonable home brewer I have seen the potential in adding it to my grain bill. After a bit of research I chucked a brew on.

Nothing fancy:
4kg of Maris, 1 kg crushed stale baguette and some late addition bramling X for a light hoppy pale.

No water additions apart from normal Campden and AMS additions. No salt, as i figured the bread would add a bit.... 23L into fermenter with US05 at 18 degrees for 2 weeks.

Found the extraction from the bread was very similar to that of grain. Almost equal in fact.

The problem was, I got an awful result. Tasted like I had some kind of polyphenol/medicinal tcp type thing. My procedures are pretty solid. Everything cleaned with PBW and sanitised with Starsan. Fermented in my stainless bucket.

Now, I am happy to put this up to fluke and try again, but on a smaller scale 1 gallon stove top biab.

After speaking with someone it turns out that the frenchies whop 18g of salt per 100g baguette, compared to 2g of salt per 100g sliced bread that is used in the uk on average. These figures came via the guys at toast ale.

So, I have two questions really. Is it worth trying again with this much salt, and if so what would you recommend adding to the mash to help account for the huge salt addition from the baguettes?

Cheers and TIA.

 

[user 18729]

I’d suggest throwing it into a stout/porter. However, that’s very high amounts of sodium. A few grams in the mash is enough throw the ph/flavour profile.

I’m trying, but I can’t think of a clever way to remove the salt and still extract sugar/starch from the bread.

Hopefully someone will have a better idea!

 

[An Ankoù]

You're stuck with the salt, but don't worry- I have to put calcium chloride in my water (56 Morbihan) as it's so soft. The beauty of using French baguettes is that there is usually no added oil. The TCP flavour derives from one of two sources: either you need to treat you water to remove chlorine and/or chloramine (½ campden tablet per 25 litres or equivalent of sodium or potassium metabisulphite is more than enough) or you've picked up an infection. I've had it from both sources over my long career, but they sorted me out at the cilnic (sorry, couldn't resist that).
None of your ingredients would naturally contribute to that smell/taste.
By the way you can then use some of your spent grain - up to 20% with 80% flour to make new bread. Details and comments on this forum.

18% salt in baguettes seems very unlikely. Just googled this:

Actuellement, dans une pâte constituée de 100 kg de farine et de 62 L d'eau, on trouve 2170 g de sel (soit 35g de sel/1L d'eau). Une baguette de 250 g contient 4.7 g de sel. Si l'on consomme 130 g de pain par jour, l'apport de sel sera donc de 2.44 g.

It works out about the same as UK bread.

 

[Hop_on_the_good_foot]

Someone has said to try a Gose but thats really not my type of brew. I like the idea of the darker beer though.
Salt caramel chocolate porter...could be nice.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi hop on the go, having worked in baking for 30 years 18g of salt per 100g baggy, that's a lot of salt and one sure fire way off killing yeast is salt, were I worked we used 3% then when the salt police came that went down to one and a half % I would not like to eat a 100g baggy with that much salt in it, I am inclined to agree with An

 

[Hop_on_the_good_foot]

[QUOTE="

Actuellement, dans une pâte constituée de 100 kg de farine et de 62 L d'eau, on trouve 2170 g de sel (soit 35g de sel/1L d'eau). Une baguette de 250 g contient 4.7 g de sel. Si l'on consomme 130 g de pain par jour, l'apport de sel sera donc de 2.44 g.

It works out about the same as UK bread.[/QUOTE]

Water was treated with Campden so I must have picked up an infection.

The salt figures came from a french chap who has been trying to do similar things and has been speaking to the toast ale guys. I agree that the level of 18g quoted is a little high, perhaps impossible, but thats what he tells me. He could be talking on average...or just be wrong. I have looked at recipes and none of them ask for that much salt, so im inclined to agree with you.

I am a bit of a water noob. I have very very hard water. Not perfect for a light hoppy number but with ams and gypsum i seem to do ok. I have Calcium Carbonate. How would that help my salt problem?

 

[Hop_on_the_good_foot]

I mean if i actually have a salt problem at all now?

Ill brew it again, and report back.....

 

[The Baron]

Make sure you give the fermentor a mega clean in case it is harbouring any infection it would be a shame to get the same result again. Good Luck and report back once conditioned

 

[An Ankoù]

You could use supermarket mineral water. A lot of brewers in Blighty, it seems use Tesco Asbeck. If I need to top up (liquor back) I use Super U Eau Minéral des Pyrénées. When I lived in Parkstone, I used to collect rainwater.