Using calcium chloride to reduce pH of beer

How to use calcium chloride to reduce a high pH level

An experienced brewer will be no stranger to the fact that the pH level of one's beer has a direct effect on flavour. A beer that is pH balanced will feel good to the palate meaning you've a drinkable beer.

If your pH level is too high, one way to reduce it is with calcium chloride flakes.

By adding salt chlorides to your beer, you not only reduce the pH level but have the benefit of the chloride ions working to promote the sweetness, or mellowness of the beer's taste profile.

Charlie Sheen would call that #winning. 

Using calcium chloride has a variety of benefits for beer production

• reduce pH levels as needed
• promotes the water hardness of beer
• help preserve mash enzymes
• assist with increase extract yield
• improve yeast metabolism growth and flocculation (great for clear beer)
• accelerate oxalate removal
• also used in cheese making as a firming agent
• can be used to pickle vegetables!

How much calcium chloride do I add to my water?

General instructions are usually to use one teaspoon per 23 litres / 5 gallons (or as required). It will dissolve best in cold water, especially if it's stirred or shaken quite vigorously.

When you think it's properly dissolved, check with a ph meter to ensure the level is as you desire. 

You can then proceed to use your water for mashing or sparging.

Pickling with calcium chloride

I recently discovered that you can also use calcium chloride to help make pickles! Have you ever heard of Ball's Pickle Crisp? It's a popular product for when pickling dill pickles - it leaves them firm and hard which improves the eating experience. 

You've probably figured out by now that the secret ingredient of pickle crisp is that it is one hundred per cent made of calcium chloride flakes. So if you want to save yourself a bit of money from the brand name product, grab a no-frills bag which will cost you less and get you more. 

#winning. 

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Replace the pressure relief valve if your corny keg is losing pressure

Is your corny keg losing pressure? Replace the valve

Are your poppet valves and o-rings doing their job properly keep your brew fresh?

If they are, chances are your pressure relief valve is failing and needs to be replaced. And it’s important you do so as flat beer is a real, first world problem that can be damaging to one’s stomach and mental health!

The role of a pressure relief valve is pretty simple and obvious if you can read its name, they exist to let out pressure should your corny keg become over pressured. So you need them as a safety measure.

The valve will release automatically when the keg itself is at a pressure point of around 800 kPa. This could potentially occur when for example you have a regulator fail and CO2 keeps getting sent into the keg. This may seem a bit of a far-fetched example...

More reasonably, if you need to open your keg for some reason, using the relief valve to remove the pressure is a smart move to avoid spraying beer everywhere. Only beer rookies make that kind of mistake and they only make it once!

So if you’re experiencing a faulty valve, you can replace it quite simply and cheaply by ordering the part on Amazon and take advantage of your free shipping with Amazon Prime.

But not all relief valves are the same. Some are made of plastic, some stainless steel.

If you’ve ever read any other post on this site, you’ll know we always recommend quality over cheap parts and given steel is more durable than plastic, we think that’s what you should go for.

The valves come in two styles, the pull-ring or the toggle. You can tell the difference as the pull ring literally has a steel ring that you can manually pull when it's installed on your Cornelius keg to release the pressure.

If you have bought a second-hand corny keg, you may wish to replace the valve just for peace of mind. You could also consider replacing the entire lid of the corny keg, which would include a new valve - but you may not have the budget for that and so the idea of replacing the poppets and relief value if they are tired seems like a sensible precaution to me.

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How to choose the best brewing spoon

This next question might cause a bit of a stir but what is the most useful item to have when brewing?

Is it a big kettle?

A giant mash tun?

A ph meter?

Those are nice things to have and all but we think the most useful item to have ready to hand on brew day is a spoon.

That’s right, a big spoon.

A big spoon to stir everything up just right. A spoon to unstick a stuck mash tun. A spoon to stir in hops. A spoon to stir in yeast. A paddle to break up clumped together ingredients.

Spoon or paddle, it doesn’t matter but the best ones do have a few factors about them that make them ideal for using on brew day.

They’ve got to be sturdy enough to stir with. Too weak and they’ll snap. This is why some brewers like steel spoons. Many of them have a corrugated design to prevent bending.

The only drawback is the steel can scratch your gear. If that’s a problem for you, use a plastic paddle if it’s strong enough. 

If you do choose the plastic fantastic, then ensure it’s food grade quality and that it is resistant to heat. 

Some of those brews can get pretty hot so if they are not heat resistant, they are more liable to break. Some smartly designed spoons will have a small head on the top of the spoon which can fit inside the next of a carboy which can be quite handy if you want to mix things up.

Conversely, steel spoons often have a bent top so they may be easily hung up on the side of a kettle or whatever. Else, they will have a hole in the top so they may be hung on a hook.

A great thing about stainless steel spoons is that they are easy to clean and will not retain odour. Handy if you’re also cooking crawfish or doing a turkey in a brewing kettle.

Wooden spoons can snap easily and can carry bacteria. No one wants a wooden spoon eh?

When stirring a mash, some prefer the paddle as they can be more effective in moving the grains around. 

You will of course what your brewing spoon to be a long enough length so that it can reach to the bottom of your kettle or drum. To that end, a 21 - 24 inch long brewing spoon should generally see you right for your stirring needs. Such spoons will work best with 4 to 10 gallon size brewing kettles.

As with all brewing equipment, you should only use a spoon that is clean. It doesn’t need to be sterilized when using before or after the boil as the heat should have killed any microbes that may have been lurking about. If however, you need to stir anything afterwards, then you will need to have sanitized your gear (we totally recommend you use sodium percarbonate for this task). This is especially true if you a simply mixing up a beer kit with some beer enhancer as there won’t be any heat to kill the bigs.

Check out some options on Amazon.

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