Using Salt Sodium Chloride in beer for bitterness

[The Baron]

Hi Chapps and Chapesses.
I like hoppy fruity beers but do not like the high bitterness that comes with loading a recipe with hops.
I have overcome most of this with doing mainly whirlpool with smaller dry hops but sometimes when using higher AA hops like Summit Columbus etc I still can get a over bitter beer for my taste.
Now I know that when I was a kid some drinkers used to put table salt in their beer to soften a over bitter beer so the question is can I add salt to my brew, how much and when in the process to reduce the bitterness?

 

[Agentgonzo]

I've never heard of that. But it's easy for you to try out - add small measured amounts of table salt to your glass, gently mixing and stirring between each addition. Then stop once you've achieved the flavour you want (if at all?). Then just scale up for the total volume of wort.

Salt inhibits yeast, so if you're going to add it at all, I would say do it as late in the process as you can - kegging or bottling maybe.

It'll be interesting to see if it has any positive effect as I've never heard of it before. Salt is a flavour enhancer, so if anything I would expect it to increase the bitterness

 

[An Ankoù]

Doesn't adding calcium chloride to the Brewing water have the same effect?

 

[The Baron]

That I do not know AA as I am no water expert.
Good point Agent I would probably in my mind add after fermentation because thats what drinkers do when adding to their pint
Question is how much as well, I have heard 0.5 gram per standard brew

 

[Agentgonzo]

That I do not know AA as I am no water expert.
Good point Agent I would probably in my mind add after fermentation because thats what drinkers do when adding to their pint
Question is how much as well, I have heard 0.5 gram per standard brew

Pour a pint, add 0.5g, mix gentle, taste, repeat until it tastes bad. Let us know! (In short, I have no idea!)

 

[Agentgonzo]

Actually, AA mentioning calcium chloride may give you a hint. See how much CaCl you would normally add to a batch, and add the same amount of NaCl. At least that'll be a starting point rather than random guesswork

 

[The Baron]

I have not done a full search on Tinterweb but hopefully somebody will have done this before as I can not see it being a new thing. I just thought it may help me and my wife who both have a low tolerance of perceived bitterness not that I do not like the odd drink with a nice bitter after taste just I can not session drink them as it become too much after one or two

 

[Agentgonzo]

Wouldn't the simpler solution be to  not use high AA hops in the first place?

We're not keen on super hoppy/bitter beers here either, so I just create/use recipes with a lower IBU

 

[Sadfield]

Doesn't adding calcium chloride to the Brewing water have the same effect?

Not really. It's the Sodium.

 

[Sadfield]

@the baron What temperature do you ferment at? A warmer, more vigorous fermentation will scrub more bitterness. A lower mash ph will also reduce hop utilisation, extracting less ibus.

 

[ChilledGecko]

@the baron I'd be interested in seeing where this leads as I have a similar problem.

I brew with RO and then re add recommended salts etc. as prescribed by Brewfather.
Just lately I'm hitting a perceived bitterness but I'm not clear whether it is actual bitterness (IBU) or astringency from the grain.
My mash pH is usually around 5.4 and I'm considering adding Lactic Acid to drop it further as a test against the astringency option.

This time round I have a bog standard Tribute clone in the fermenter that I brewed with standard tap water (low hops / no 'stuff') to give me a base before I start poking with the recipes too much.

 

[Sadfield]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...UQFnoECA8QAQ&usg=AOvVaw2aEx1-WaIsh3r2YUlbTXVS

 

[Caramel Ox]

If you do your recipe work on Brewfather it has sodium as a target range for beer water profiles, so I have been adding salt to the mash to match. Is that not common then?

 

[Martin Kernick]

If you do your recipe work on Brewfather it has sodium as a target range for beer water profiles, so I have been adding salt to the mash to match. Is that not common then?

The sort of levels of NaCl you'ds add for the 'perfect' water for any beer style are really low though. Im under the impression that the OP is talking about significantly more than this.

 

[The Baron]

@the baron What temperature do you ferment at? A warmer, more vigorous fermentation will scrub more bitterness. A lower mash ph will also reduce hop utilisation, extracting less ibus.

Hi Sadfield usually 30-35c as I generally use Kveik for my IPA's

 

[The Baron]

The sort of levels of NaCl you'ds add for the 'perfect' water for any beer style are really low though. Im under the impression that the OP is talking about significantly more than this.

1/2 a gram seems to be the advise I have found on the web per brew of simple table salt

 

[Caramel Ox]

A half gram in 23 litres is going to make no difference to anything. You can safely go to 3g if your source water is low in sodium. I am also sensitive to bitterness in fruity beers eg tropical ferret I didn’t like.

 

[Martin Kernick]

1/2 a gram seems to be the advise I have found on the web per brew of simple table salt

Oh well then that's in the same order of magnitude that you might want for water correction. If I'm understanding it right, Brewfather seems to indicate, say, for an American IPA, that Na+ should be in the range 0-100 ppm (mg/L). My tap water is about 8mg/l so I add no NaCl. If you're adding 1/2 a gram per 25L, then that's 20mg/L you're adding, which isn't much.

 

[The Baron]

Hi Caramel and Martin my water report says 18.3 mg Na/l which is very low compared to the max allowed which is 200

 

[Caramel Ox]

Hi Caramel and Martin my water report says 18.3 mg Na/l which is very low compared to the max allowed which is 200

So 2g would be a reasonable addition for a 23l batch, or find a way to measure 1/40 of that and add to a pint.

Is the sodium making a difference though or is it the chloride changing the ratio?