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Thoughts on Sodium?

bobo1898

Grandmaster Brewer
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Most water numbers that I target for various beer styles don't seem to really focus on sodium all that much. The emphasis is always on the sulfate to chloride ratio--very important indeed--but should sodium also be considered?

Before my last brew day, I've only added gypsum and calcium chloride to reach my target numbers. My sodium always sits at 8ppm. I decided to up it last time (24ppm) and found my FG tasting to be a bit different. There was slightly more flavor.

Did some digging and found Brulosophy did a exbeeriment on sodium:

http://brulosophy.com/2018/01/22/water-chemistry-pt-10-the-impact-of-sodium-on-beer-exbeeriment-results/

He did a low sodium/high sodium comparison. And while I think 100ppm for sodium is a bit high, his results determined that there was a noticeable difference (both him and the tasters could differentiate). He preferred the high sodium while the tasters were split.

Now I'm sure how much sodium is added may depend on style--coincidentally, both Brulosophy and my last brew day involved IPA's. But I don't see much about adding sodium.

Does anyone have a range they target? Does it vary by style? Is 8ppm really low? Is there a too high number? Obviously this can all be subjective to the drinker. I guess I'm wondering if I should be thinking about sodium when I'm targeting my water profile?
 
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