[flbrewer]

Working on Bru'n Water and I'm curious if anyone knows which type of Calcium Chloride I am using. I buy this from a homebrew retailer online and it's dry, pellet looking. Is it Anhydrous or Dihydrate?

[JT]

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[flbrewer]

Yeah I saw that, still not sure.

[HoosierBrew]

I'd go with the part that says  "However, selecting Dihydrate may overdose the water with Calcium and Chloride if the mineral has some Anhydrous form in it. It may be safer to select Anhydrous to avoid overdosing".  It's what I'm doing.


EDIT-  I don't know the exact form of mine either. I buy it from the LHBS and they don't know since it's only been in recent years that large numbers of homebrewers (thanks in no small part to people like Martin) started looking at water treatment in depth. Just makes more sense to not run the risk of over mineralizing and just go with Anhydrous. My beer is good and that's what it's all about.

[Phil_M]

You can always just make up a solution per the direction in Bru'n water, that'll take all guesswork out of it.

Like Hoosier, I've just been using anhydrous and avoiding the risk of overdosing. I'm considering changing to the solution route, as that would be more precise. Plus calcium chloride seems to always take the most time to dissolve, so that's a little less stirring on brew day if I opt for the solution.

[HoosierBrew]

Martin -    I've read references that say that the anhydrous form of CaCl2 is in the small pellet form and that the dihydrate is in flaked form. I've also read references that say this is inaccurate. Do you have any info on this ? 

[Phil_M]

Doesn't every "dry" (anhydrous) form of CaCl2 pull moisture out of the air and eventually become at least somewhat dihydrate?

[mabrungard]

I'm not sure that you can assume that the shape of the particles indicate what the calcium chloride's hydration state is. As mentioned above, even anhydrous (water-free) calcium chloride can pick up water from moisture in the air. Unless you have freshly dehydrated the stuff with a visit to a hot oven and kept it in a container with a desicant, it is likely to have some degree of hydration. I've mentioned that a large supplier (Dow) quotes their anhydrous stuff is only like 97% moisture free. It's just really difficult to keep water out of that stuff.

I prefer to avoid a chloride overdose when I'm crafting sulfate-laden water, so I assume the Anhydrous setting when I use Bru'n Water. But as pointed out above, its probably somewhere moister than that. I suggest that you switch the setting between dihydrate and anhydrate while you are planning your mineral additions to see what the potential effect on concentrations will be.