Campden Treatment for Chlorine Removal in Brewing Water
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Hey all you homebrewers out there in video land! This week, we do a triangle test for the effect of campden tablets on removing chlorine from your brewing water.
I treated a batch of tap water the same way that I would prepare water for brewing and subjected John to a triangle test of water. One cup was treated with a campden tablet and two were plain tap water.
John had a hard time picking out the difference. Admittedly, I am not sure I would pick it out either if I didn't know the variable. All that really means is that our water isn't terribly high in chlorine...which is good. I can however taste it pretty strongly in water that has sat out for a bit at home.
I think we overall determined that I am more sensitive to the chlorine that John is.
Anyhow, we suggest some ways you could try this comparison at home for your own edification.
CHEERS!
Check out our blog at:
http"//www.brew-dudes.com
Keep going with these triangle tests!
Thanks - we will. - John
I did some research into chlorine in tap water in a very amateurish way a few years ago go because I was concerned that the chlorine was killing bacteria and fungi in the soil surrounding the roots of the plants that I was watering disturbing the symbiotic relationship between the three organisms. What I found out was that chlorine is very volatile and very difficult to keep in solution.
Yea Chlorine comes out during the boil, or even just leaving the water in a bucket exposed to oxygen over night will rid it. It is the chloramine that you need the tablets for.
Yes, you can leave the water our for the chlorine to be removed. If you can't plan that far ahead, use the tablets.
@@BrewDudes YEa thats true. I do use the tablets too, cause who remembers to think ahead!
This is why water treatment plants are switching away from chlorination to chloramination.
I am working on wine, but have found several of your shows very helpful, and I wanted to know about the Camden tablets I bought, ty, that helps!
Glad we could help! - John
I heat water for mash on gas , campden tablet little bit then heat on you see the bubbles on the side stir them away . Just started doing this treatment but makes a big difference . Well said dudes .
Thanks!
Great episode. I wished you would have listed your water profile or told how much chlorine your water has as maybe some sort of baseline compared to the rest of us.
I've gathered my water needed for a brewday the night before, just to be surprised how much chlorine I could smell when I took the lid off the next day.
Hope you guys do more episodes like this. Lots of info. Thanks and cheers guys!
Hi - I looked at our water district's report from 2019. The reported chlorine level was a range of 0,09 to 0.18 PPM. Not sure how that compares to the water you are using, but hope this information helps. - John
When I first started homebrewing I did research on this because I was mistakenly doing the boil with the lid on and started getting some phenolic type flavors due to the chlorine. What I found was that chlorine will boil out on its own (just had to take the damn lid off). Chloramine on the other hand does not boil out but can be removed with campden tablets.
Got it - thank you! - John
Brilliant. I preboil and use campden tablets. And yep judge's pick up everything lol. Cheers
Ha - that is true!
Very nice stuff. I love the water topics you guys have been discussing lately. Thank you! Cheers! Water On!
Thanks! Water on, indead!
There are many cider making texts that warn you to wait 24 hours after treating the must with camden tablets to prevent inhibiting the yeast. Of course, no one is (or should be) boiling the cider first. My concern with treating the water with sulfur right before you start your brew day would be more about creating a sulfur odor or taste in the wort. Have you encountered anything like this, or is this also driven off by the volatility of the boil? Anyway, thanks guys for doing a great job in making the process so accessible.
The effects of sulfur in beer, cider and wine are usually from a different form of sulfur. Like organic sulfur compounds or hydrogen sulfide (HS2). Campden is a sulfite molecule stabilized to a cation like potassium or sodium. I'm not 100% sure but the sulfites and even sulfates are pretty stable and don't have the reactivity of hydrogen sulfide. My chemistry isn't the best but I think that's the case. Campden overnight isn't going to become hydrogen sulfide. Hope that helps. Cheers! -Mike
My favorite LGBTQ content producers! Thanks for this, I'm tired of begging my neighbor who has a groundwater pirate well for water on brew day. Campden tabs to the rescue.
Thanks for the great video. Just wondering, do you need to adjust the brewing salt additions when using campden tablets?
No - I haven't done that and haven't had problems. - John
The Campden Tablets will add residual concentrations of potassium or sodium (depending on which metabisulfite is used) and also sulphate or chloride. You could add these additions to a water calculator knowing that you will be adding the tablets. Not sure exactly what ppm levels it will increase the above by but it will be relatively small so probably only an issue if you already have high sodium levels for example (in which case use potassium metabisulfite perhaps)
Staying hydrated on brew dash dudes dot com! Fun experiment guys!
That's right. It's been a hot summer.
I had a solvent like off taste issue for ages, and it was the damn chloramine! I was too focused on chlorine and off gassing it, but the only solution for chloramine I know of is campden
Well at least you caught the issue. Hope the Campden tabs work for you. Cheers! -Mike
But Sulphates (sulphites?) are used to stop fermentation, would adding Campden tablets have any impact on the yeasts ability to ferment?
If added to treat water before the boil, Campden tablets will not affect the fermentation. - John
Hey boys, really enjoying your water chem series. Would the campden tablet also get rid of the chlorimine . Thanks
Yes, you can use a campden tablet to remove chlorimine too.
Hi I hope you can help me please when I mix up my star san the water is milky NOT clear like it should be. Please can you help me do I need to filter the water with a Brita filter jug and will this help ?????
Hi Darran - when I mix up StarSan with water, it gets milky over time. There is debate if that color means that the solution is not effective. Mix it up at the proper amounts and use it quickly to ease your mind - you should be fine. I have had great luck with StarSan. - John
I used half a campden tablet for the first time in my latest brew (still fermenting), I hope that will get rid of an off-aroma that I think comes from the chloramine in the water. Question though, wouldn't campden interfere with the addition of calcium chloride?
Not really its a tiny amount of sulfite compared to the ppm of a CaCl addition. If that's what you're getting at. Cheers! -Mike
When you go to drink some beer, and your dude brings out 4 cups of tap water. LOL
Yeah, well, I was able to drink beer later. :) - Jonn
Shoulda cleared your pallet between samples....
Next time!
Thanks guys. Good info n
Thanks!
gulp gulp gulp! lol! Great experiment!
Thanks!
Appreciate this is an older video but do you bother treating your water for the 1 gallon tester batches? If so how much would you add 1/4 of a tablet? Or would you go even less than that?
Hi - I do treat the water with a Campden tablet. I have broken up some of the tablets as best as I can into quarter size pieces but it's not exact. I add a fragment to the 2 gallons of water as it heats up for the mash. - John
Cheers John, the water where I live is pretty hard and quite chlorine'y so perhaps I'll try 1/4 of a tablet in my water. I've used bottled water before but sometimes the shop doesn't have any when I want to brew.
Get a scale and use pot meta powder sold for wine (potassium metabspholite) at .035g per gallon of water to be treated (round up to the capability of your scale after figuring out how much you need).
You can get pot meta at your homebrew shop....much cheaper and easier to measure with a 10$ gram scale.
For one gallon batches, I'd use the amount needed for 5 gallons, then portion that water into one gallon jugs instead of trying to portion the campden tablet into 1/4s.
I thought the most important reason to use campden was yeast health
There you go. - John
So my neighbor asked me an interesting question what if you mixed it all and did not Wait 24 hours for the Campden Tablets all u did is putt it all to gether would it work?
Campden chemistry happens almost instantly. It only takes 20 minutes or so for it to work. I don't know where the 24hr legacy information comes from. I think that might be legacy information being confused with off-gasing. If you put the water in a container it typically takes 24hrs for all the chlorine to off gas naturally. Shorter if the water is agitated, shorter still if its heated. Hope that answers the question. -Mike
@@BrewDudes Chloramine will not off gas....most water treatments have switched to this BYMMV.
awesome! but plastic cups?
Mike didn't have enough clean glass cups. I couldn't smell or taste any plastic if that makes a difference. - John
@@BrewDudes thinking of the planet :)
Gotcha. I will have him recycle them at least.