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Campden Tablets

SOGOAK

Grandmaster Brewer
Joined
Dec 11, 2008
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Location
Wheaton, IL
My first 4 months have been minimash brewing where i steep the grains at 155 for 30-40min.  Since the boil is only 3 gallons, I've been using a brita pitcher.

Now that I'm looking at AG brewing.  The thought of filtering 7+ gallons is not that good.  I have city water that is pretty good.  I do get a slight chlorine smell/taste every so often. 

I was thinking of getting one of those inline drinking water filters and then I got to reading about Campden Tablets.

My concern is that I have a possible sulfate allergy and would hate to have my brews give me a stuffy head/hangover.  So far they opposite is true of HBs...

Soooooo... If 1 tab does 20 gal and 1/4 tab does 5, while that be enough sulfite left over to cause me trouble?
 
Sulfites add SO2 gas to the liquid which can kill or stun wild yeast as the gas bubbles through the mix. 
Campden tablets are often used in wine making where there is no boil to ensure sanitation. 
Domesticated yeast strains are sulfite resistant, which allows winemakers to use Campden tablets to stun wild yeasts and to allow the pitched yeast to do its predictable thing.

Homebrewers in general do not use Campden tablets when making beer.

I'd suggest bottled water by the gallon if your municipal water tastes that bad.
 
Homebrewers don't use Campden tablets? I don't know if I agree - I use them to remove Chlorimates from my city water. Works like a dream. They are also a method of disinfecting fruit before adding them to the secondary tank.

 
I hope Maine HomeBrewer does fill us in a bit more on this.  I just started using Camden tablets to deal with Cholrines in my city water as well.

I am interested in hearing more on this.
 
I rely on a double filter under the sink. It has a convenient spigot that I can put a tube on to fill my HLT. Shop around and do plenty of research, Prices vary and the amounts of filtering vary also. Mine is an Aquasana. Which I highly recommend. Good price, low maintenance, low yearly replacement filter  costs, one of the best filtering, and they send me an email every now and then to replace the filter. I know what your thinking, He works for Aquasana. LOL NO I DON'T!

Cheers
Preston
 
Does your filter remove Chlorimates? I have looked into several filtering systems and they don't appear to. If your system does, I might have to look into it.
 
I started using Campden tabs to remove chloramines, which are more common today than chlorine, and tougher to remove.  Boiling does not remove it. 

The tabs are easier for me than a charcoal filter.  I put it in the bucket of water the night before brewday. 
 
MaltLicker said:
I started using Campden tabs to remove chloramines, which are more common today than chlorine, and tougher to remove.  Boiling does not remove it. 

The tabs are easier for me than a charcoal filter.  I put it in the bucket of water the night before brewday. 

It is my understanding that you may add the tabs to the water, just before heating it.  The length of time the tabs are in the water is not a huge issue.

Thoughts?
 
I think that is correct.  I believe the "effective" time is 5-10 minutes or so.  I do it early solely as "get it out of the way" practice, so I can get the mash water heating AQAP in the morning. 
 
FWIW - I found this thread discussing camden tablets at another site I frequent.  Check it out:  http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/do-campden-tablets-de-chlorinate-water-59467/
 
Rep said:
MaltLicker said:
I started using Campden tabs to remove chloramines, which are more common today than chlorine, and tougher to remove.  Boiling does not remove it. 

The tabs are easier for me than a charcoal filter.  I put it in the bucket of water the night before brewday. 

It is my understanding that you may add the tabs to the water, just before heating it.  The length of time the tabs are in the water is not a huge issue.

Thoughts?

My homebrew guru who taught me this trick said to toss in the tablets as the water is heating. It takes about 10 minutes to fizz away the tablet and that, he says, volatilizes all the Chloramine. I am no chemist so I can't prove what he says, but I have never had any issues with Chlorine flavors in the beer even though Philly water seems to be fairly heavily treated with it. Seems to work for me.
 
Seanibus said:
Rep said:
MaltLicker said:
I started using Campden tabs to remove chloramines, which are more common today than chlorine, and tougher to remove.  Boiling does not remove it. 

The tabs are easier for me than a charcoal filter.  I put it in the bucket of water the night before brewday. 

It is my understanding that you may add the tabs to the water, just before heating it.  The length of time the tabs are in the water is not a huge issue.

Thoughts?

My homebrew guru who taught me this trick said to toss in the tablets as the water is heating. It takes about 10 minutes to fizz away the tablet and that, he says, volatilizes all the Chloramine. I am no chemist so I can't prove what he says, but I have never had any issues with Chlorine flavors in the beer even though Philly water seems to be fairly heavily treated with it. Seems to work for me.

I crush the tablets between two spoons.  I then add about a third of the powder to the Mash water as it heats.  Then. 1/3 goes into my first batch sparge water and the last 1/3 goes into the second sparge water as it is heating up.  That is BTW for a 5.5 gallon batch.
 
FYI, I have been snoopin on this and the folks at tastybrew beleive in these things and that between using a lot less than a winemaker and doing a boil most everyone should be alright.

I'm also going to try to shag down an accurate water profile for our city water.  If the level of Chloromides are minimal, then I might just skip this all together.

Thank you kindly for your responses!
 
I'm on a well so my water is good.  I wasn't aware that sulphites can be used to treat city water, I always thought they were used to stun wild yeast.
When I've lived in the city I usually used bottled water when brewing because the tap water was gross.
 
Maine Homebrewer said:
I'm on a well so my water is good.  I wasn't aware that sulphites can be used to treat city water, I always thought they were used to stun wild yeast.
When I've lived in the city I usually used bottled water when brewing because the tap water was gross.

Your water is good because you have a well?  You may want to rethink that and actually test your water for things beyond brewing.  Taste is not an indication of safe water.  And water that tastes good may, or may not be good for brewing.
 
http://www.wardlab.com/fee_schedule_water.htm

Some brewers in our club used this lab to test their water.  Looks like the "W-6" test for $16.50 would suffice for brewing. 
 
You may need to test your water at least twice a year... once in the winter and once in the summer. In my area the water company pulls from two different sources both of which have drastically different water profiles but they blend them. In the winter water source A provides 60% of the water and in the summer it only provides 40% of the water.
 
         What is the effect to you the campden tablet? or the water filter you used.


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