iian said:
Just a quick question about campden tablets. The general advice seems to be to add half a crushed campden tablet to a 40 pint fermenting vessel.
That is correct for beer, wine is a completely different animal
iian said:
Just wondered if the tablets come in different sizes, the ones i have which i purchased from amazon are quite small, about 6mm across and 4mm thick
Correct one of these in a gallon (UK) gives 50ppm sulphite, which makes it a convenient way to dose wines to prevent staling/oxidation, and to a certain extent infection.
iian said:
half of one of these is a tiny amount.
Yes, but, in beer, you are using them to remove residual chlorine from the brewing water, and that is present in a very small quantity.
[Pedant Mode On]
In beer brewing campden tablets are used to remove chlorine (either as the dissolved gas or the harder to remove chloramine), from the water used for brewing. it is important to remove chlorine (Which includes any remaining from chlorine based cleaning products), that by itself is not an issue, but when it combines with phenols from hops they produce TriChloroPhenols (TCP) which are detectable in the parts per billion level . . . producing a antiseptic or 'band aid' type of flavour in the final beer.
piddledribble said:
Use Sodium Metabisulphite powder but its harder to get the correct amount, although in most instances accuracy is not required to be spot on.
That is a debatable point, there are some brewers that say adding additional sulphite can lead to a sulphurous nose as the yeast will metabolise it . . . I've not experienced that myself, but in an ideal world you only need to add sufficient to neutralise the chlorine present. Personally I know that any excess will act as an antioxidant, so I'm not too worried about adding too much.
As for using the powder it is easy, 100g in 1Litre gives you a 10% solution. . . . 5ml of the 10% solution is the same as 1 campden tablet
BrotherMalice said:
Do you crush and drop one in before boiling the water for the brew?
It's really used for kit/extract brewers as most AG brewers heat their liquor in the HLT which will drive off any chlorine . . .as a belt and braces method it is useful to do as it will remove any chloramines either added by the water company of formed naturally in it's journey through the distribution network. So I tend to add the solution(I use a 10% solution of sod met) to my boiler, and then run the liquor into that, a quick stir and its all done. Kit Brewers should add it to a vessel then draw their tap water into that before using that water in their brewing.
eskimobob said:
Depends on your brew size but usually HALF a tablet is right for a 23 litre brew :thumb:
One Campden tablet will neutralise 3mg/l of chlorine/chloramine in
17 UK GALLONS so half a tablet is actually serious overkill for 5 gallons. . . . As I said earlier it is an antioxidant so depending on your yeast strain an excess is a good thing.
eskimobob said:
My HLT is not large enough to hold enough water for the mash and sparge so I do two lots - I usually add quarter of a table to the mash water then add another quarter to the sparge water.
Or for easier and slightly more accurate use use a 10% solution of sodium metabisulphite
Rwilts said:
On this topic, why do none of the kits mention adding a CT ?
Kit manufacturers do themselves no favours in trying to give the impression that making beer is as simple as adding a syrup to water then adding yeast and 7 days later you have beer. There are all sorts of tricks and techniques that can be used to improve the results, but it does seem to me that most kit manufacturers generally don't give a toss about the results obtained from their kits!
Rwilts said:
Should i be adding half when the FV is full and just before pitching yeast?
No, crush the CT into a FV and run the water into that, give it a stir, then take your water out to boil to dissolve the concentrate in a second FV, then add the rest of the treated water to the second FV.
ScottM said:
The campden tablets are generally used to treat the water before getting the wort ready. If you want to add a campden tablet to your wort then you would probably need to leave it overnight to allow it to disperse before adding the yeast. The campden will stun the yeast thus slowing the fermentation. If enough of them get stunned then it'll halt altogether as they will die out faster than they multiply.
Wild yeast are affected that way, which is why they are used at the rate of 1CT per Gallon to stun wild yeast on fruit in winemaking. At the rate we use them for chlorine removal ( 1CT per 17 gallons) it will have
zero effect on brewers yeast.
It is also essential to note that Chlorophenols can also be produced by several bacteria that are common contaminants during brewing. Using a campden tablet will not prevent this, only an effective, efficient cleaning and disinfecting routine will prevent that.
[/Pedant Mode Off]
