[Rolltide14]

I recently brewed a pale ale and followed the water additions put out by BeerSmith after adding my water profile and target profile. Target profile in this case was the preloaded hoppy beer profile in BeerSmith. Brewing the beer went as expected and I hit all of my numbers dead on. Went on to fermentation and took gravity readings daily through the sample port on my brew buckets. While drinking the samples after gravity reading the beer tasted and smelled amazing lots of citrus notes. When I hit my FG of 1.010 I left it for 3 days and came back to take a sample to see if it had fermented out. It was still at 1.010 so it was done. While tasting that final sample the beer tasted really salty, undrinkably salty. I found it strange that none of this salty character was apparent during fermentation, but showed up after the beer fermented out. This saltiness has continued throughout the cold crash. I remember thinking that the gypsum addition seemed high, but was needed to get the amount of sulfate I was shooting for. I am on my phone now but when I get home I’ll post the recipe along with salt additions. Anyone ever experience this?

[ynotbrusum]

 I found that excessive brewing salts can leave a taste that is very minerally to almost alka-seltzer like.  So, I use them in pretty light doses - just enough to get the results I am seeking.  The lighter the beer, the lighter the touch added.

[BrewBama]

Though I don’t recall ever having a beer taste pretty good throughout fermentation then turn salty towards the end like you describe, I have had some bad experiences using BeerSmith’s water module.

BeerSmith is my go-to for recipe formulation, gravity predictions, brewday calculations and such, but I’ll leave the water chemistry to the guy with a degree in water chemistry. So, I use Bru’n Water for water calculations and add the prescribed salts from it into my BeerSmith recipe.

Anecdotally, I recall when I began using Bru’n Water that the additions seem much smaller than the BeerSmith recommendations. So much so I remember skeptically commenting that the small additions wouldn’t make any difference at all.  Martin assured me I was wrong. Glad I listened.

Before cashing in your chips, let it finish, package it (hopefully you keg), and let it mature. In the end you might have a dumper or just a green beer that matures into a good pint.  Bad news doesn’t get better with time but sometimes bad beer matures into ‘ain’t bad’ or even ‘pretty good’ given a little time.

If you do end up with a dumper you could dabble in some post fermentation corrections. Mix up a X ppm solution of calcium chloride and add it in measured amounts per measured amount of beer to see if you can balance it out. If it works scale up the solution to your kegged volume (this is why I hope you keg). You might salvage a batch from zero to drinkable ...but you might make Alka Setzer, too. I figure since you’d be at zero anyway what’s the harm in trying.

As a side note: one reason I got the Tilt floating hydrometer is so I would not have to take multiple samples of wort throughout fermentation. I was always concerned about opening and closing the BrewBucket sample valve multiple times.  It is quite a resource commitment, and once I navigated the learning curve, I can recommend the Tilt for no better reason than to know when the fermentation is at a point that an action needs to be taken (spund, D rest, rack, etc.).  In other words, I recommend taking very few samples.

Hope this helps. Look forward to hearing about the outcome.


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[Rolltide14]

Thanks for the responses. I do plan to keg it up and let it sit for a while. I also found it very strange that the salty taste came on post fermentation. I will see how it turns out. I did input my water profile into Bru'n Water and adjusted the mineral additions to match the profile and it came in very close to what I got out of BeerSmith, although slightly lower. I typically do not brew to many hoppy beers, so this is my first time adding this much sulfate to a brew. Hopefully it all works out. Thanks again.

[dmtaylor]

What is your water source?  Does it have a water softener?  This technology works by replacing hardness with sodium salt.  Could be part of the problem.

The other thing is not to add salts to your brew if you are not exactly sure of the source quality or if not certain why it should be added.  BeerSmith is probably good about this but since I don't use it I cannot be certain either.

Personally I don't add salts much anymore except for IPA and even then it is always less than 4 teaspoons or about 7-8 grams.  How much did you add?

[Rolltide14]

I use RO water that I get from the local market and use a TDS meter on it before brewing. It has always come up in the 0-10 ppm range on TDS. So I just treat it as having nothing in it. I can’t use the well water at my house because I am surrounded by farms and the well water always come back with some level of chemical pesticides. I am going to brew the same recipe again and use a more conservative amount of brewing salts.

[denny]

I use RO water that I get from the local market and use a TDS meter on it before brewing. It has always come up in the 0-10 ppm range on TDS. So I just treat it as having nothing in it. I can’t use the well water at my house because I am surrounded by farms and the well water always come back with some level of chemical pesticides. I am going to brew the same recipe again and use a more conservative amount of brewing salts.

FWIW, I've found  that the best water treatment is the least water treatment.

[BrewBama]

I use RO water that I get from the local market and use a TDS meter on it before brewing. It has always come up in the 0-10 ppm range on TDS. So I just treat it as having nothing in it. I can’t use the well water at my house because I am surrounded by farms and the well water always come back with some level of chemical pesticides. I am going to brew the same recipe again and use a more conservative amount of brewing salts.

FWIW, I've found  that the best water treatment is the least water treatment.

I believe you’re right. 

I try to get my Calcium and Sulfate in line with Bru’n Water using as little Calcium Chloride, Gypsum, and Epsom Salt as I can, then if I need some bicarbonate I use a touch of Baking Soda.  I don’t think I ever go over a cpl grams in any component. 

I found I don’t like Pickling Lime. No conclusion yet, but I think it eliminates my Calcium and turns the water blue with Brewtan.


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