Calcium chloride substitute

[Jason s]

Hoping to get a brew on later today and realised I need calcium chloride. I'm wondering if baking powder or bicarbonate of soda are a good replacement. If not it's a trip out to water into beer.

Thanks in advance

 

[Dutto]

Why?

Normally tap water is okay …

… with a Campden Tablet thrown in if you want to get rid of the Chlorine.
:hat:

 

[Jason s]

Okay. So a campden tablet will just replace the calcium chloride.

 

[Dutto]

Okay. So a campden tablet will just replace the calcium chloride.

Er … NO! I wondered why you wished to introduce the Calcium Chloride!

Normally it’s only introduced for very “soft” waters and where I live the water is so “hard” that the water company apologise for it!

If you check with your local Water Authority and feed in your Post Code you can get a full report on your tap water.

The Campden Tablet is used to remove Chlorine, IF it’s needed in your area. Personally, all I do is mix tap water 50/50 with Lidl/Aldi etc Spring Water!
:hat:

 

[Jason s]

Okay. So a campden tablet will just replace the calcium chloride

Er … NO! I wondered why you wished to introduce the Calcium Chloride!

Normally it’s only introduced for very “soft” waters and where I live the water is so “hard” that the water company apologise for it!

If you check with your local Water Authority and feed in your Post Code you can get a full report on your tap water.

The Campden Tablet is used to remove Chlorine, IF it’s needed in your area. Personally, all I do is mix tap water 50/50 with Lidl/Aldi etc Spring Water!
:hat:

I am using my tap water profile to make an all grain American pale ale. Brewfather says I need to add 0.8 gram to my mash water. It's a BIAB no sparge 10 litre batch.

 

[Dutto]

Okay. So a campden tablet will just replace the calcium chloride

I am using my tap water profile to make an all grain American pale ale. Brewfather says I need to add 0.8 gram to my mash water. It's a BIAB no sparge 10 litre batch.

I’m afraid that you’ve lost me! I’m not that scientific. Sorry! (I don’t even have scales that can measure 0.8 grams!)

I suggest that you go with the Brewfather recommendation and let us know how the brew turns out.
:hat:

 

[Jason s]

Thanks for your help. I'm going to go with 50/50 bottled/tap water. Think I need to learn to walk before I can run. I'll get a few more BIAB brews done before I disappear down the rabbit hole of water treatment.

 

[An Ankoù]

There is no ideal substitute for calcium chloride. You might use calcium sulphate to provide a better calcium level And about half the volume of table salt as you would have used for CaCl2. The chloride softens the mourhfeel a little and s, as Dutto points out, you can leave it out without very much harm at all.

What are you brewing?

 

[Rodcx500z]

An American pale ale says in the post

 

[Slid]

I think the OP indicated he was doing an American Pale Ale. Calcium Chloride, I understand is used to accentuate a malty flavour and Calcium Sulphate for hoppy (US IPA) styles.

 

[peebee]

Hoping to get a brew on later today and realised I need calcium chloride. I'm wondering if baking powder or bicarbonate of soda are a good replacement. If not it's a trip out to water into beer.

Thanks in advance

Calcium Chloride is Calcium plus Chloride.

Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda, not powder which contains an acid like "Cream of Tartar", or Bicarbonate of Soda) is sodium plus bicarbonate. Sodium is not a replacement for calcium. Beer needs the calcium, and some sodium won't go amiss. Bicarbonate increases "alkalinity" (increases the pH too but be careful not to mix "pH" up with "alkalinity"), 90-95% of British brewers do not want to go anywhere near Sodium Bicarbonate. You'd be better off replacing Calcium Chloride with salt (Sodium Chloride) but not too much 'cos too much sodium isn't supposed to be too good.

Most Brits have plenty of Calcium in their water but often too much "alkalinity". So, following @Dutto's advise (diluting your tap water) is not a bad way to start.

 

[Jason s]

Thanks for all your replies. I've picked up some posh bottled water from waitrose and created a water profile with that. It appears that needs slightly more calcium chloride added to the mash. So I'm going to just use the peckham springs (tap water) and omit the calcium chloride. I'll see how that goes. I may decide to use half the amount in table salt.

 

[dmtaylor]

A good substitute for calcium chloride or any other salts is NOTHING, until you understand why the heck you are adding salts at all. No real need for any salt additions, this is a super advanced topic that 95% of homebrewers don't understand, and thus should not be doing.

 

[Jason s]

A good substitute for calcium chloride or any other salts is NOTHING, until you understand why the heck you are adding salts at all. No real need for any salt additions, this is a super advanced topic that 95% of homebrewers don't understand, and thus should not be doing.

Peckham springs it is then.

 

[peebee]

I've just got myself some more Calcium Chloride this week. When you've decided why you want it and how much you might add, you would not go wrong getting what I got: Calcium Chloride 33% solution (Ebay) (it's for cheese making!). 1L is rather a lot. You can get smaller quantities and most "water calculators" support using solutions now.

Calcium Chloride is terrifically hygroscopic, so buying the "solid" stuff is practically a waste of time: Having decided why you want to add it, how much you want to add, got your (dubiously) highly accurate measuring scales, weighed out exactly how much calcium chloride you need ... STOP! You won't have a clue how much water is actually in the Calcium Chloride! And therefore, no real idea how much Calcium Chloride you have very carefully weighed out. An aqueous solution is far easier.

 

[Jason s]

I've just got myself some more Calcium Chloride this week. When you've decided why you want it and how much you might add, you would not go wrong getting what I got: Calcium Chloride 33% solution (Ebay) (it's for cheese making!). 1L is rather a lot. You can get smaller quantities and most "water calculators" support using solutions now.

Calcium Chloride is terrifically hygroscopic, so buying the "solid" stuff is practically a waste of time: Having decided why you want to add it, how much you want to add, got your (dubiously) highly accurate measuring scales, weighed out exactly how much calcium chloride you need ... STOP! You won't have a clue how much water is actually in the Calcium Chloride! And therefore, no real idea how much Calcium Chloride you have very carefully weighed out. An aqueous solution is far easier.

TBPH not quite sure why I need it. Chemistry was not my favourite subject. I'm in the electro mechanical trade.

Now the recipe is a david heath recipe on brewfather for APA. When my tap water profile was put in as source it said I needed the calcium chloride. Now as I didn't realise how hard it would be to obtain I left it till lastminutedotcom hoping amazon would come up trumps. How wrong was I. That's why I took to this forum and asked the question. I'm just a newbie with several kits under my belt moving on to all grain. So go easy on me. Share your knowledge.

 

[foxy]

TBPH not quite sure why I need it. Chemistry was not my favourite subject. I'm in the electro mechanical trade.

Now the recipe is a david heath recipe on brewfather for APA. When my tap water profile was put in as source it said I needed the calcium chloride. Now as I didn't realise how hard it would be to obtain I left it till lastminutedotcom hoping amazon would come up trumps. How wrong was I. That's why I took to this forum and asked the question. I'm just a newbie with several kits under my belt moving on to all grain. So go easy on me. Share your knowledge.

Don't be overwhelmed by salt additions, once you get your head around it it is super easy. Calcium chloride and calcium sulphate are readily available from your home brew store and calcium chloride is soluble cold water, better than hot. I think the poster above was getting mixed up with calcium carbonate which isn't soluble.
Easiest way to tackle water treatment is to treat the water as if you are only using the base malt (fermentable grains).
Once you have your water profile use one of the brewing water calculators to work out the salt additions and maybe a drop of acid to use to get your mash pH to the level you want 5.2 -5.5
The buffering effect of the base malt and using the calculator will give you the additions you need to reach for your mash water pH.
As for the none fermentables just put them in at mash out 77C for 20 mins this has no or very little effect on the mash pH so each time you brew, you just have to dial them in as late mash additions. It pays to keep things simple.

https://byo.com/article/the-principles-of-ph/