Messed up on salt additions, how can this impact taste?

[TkmLinus]

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! On this morning's brew I messed up on brewing salt additions for Star Gazer IPA. The recipe calls for 2tsp Calcium Chloride, 1/2 tsp gypsum, 1/4 tsp salt in RO water. I went with my normal go to for hoppy beers, 4g calcium chloride and 7g gypsum in RO water(found this on a website that stated it is a good mix for hoppy beers). I realized my error, shrugged my shoulders and started my mash. I know the beer will taste just fine but this had me wondering how the flavor might be impacted with the finished product, or will I notice at all? I am still a noob when it comes to messing with water chemistry and am interested to learn more. Thanks in advance!

 

[SouthForkBrew]

The way I understand it, and I'm no expert on water, but Chlorides accentuate malty flavors, while Sulfate accentuates bitterness. The ratio of these two in brewing water determines the effect on the overall perceived bitterness. Based on the original recipe it looks like you undershot the chloride and well overshot the sulfate. My guess would be that you're going to end up with more perceived bitterness than was intended, but I can't imagine it ruining your batch.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Assuming a 5 gal batch and using my process efficiency / losses your water profile would look something like this...

According to Martin Brungard, who knows a lot about water...

So your beer will turn out just fine You did not use too much gypsum. In fact, based on Martin's direction, a little more gypsum may have improved it.

With a few more details like how you mixed the salts and water quantities (e.g all in mash or divided between sparge and mash, etc) the exact profile could be dialed in but 10-20% up or down probably doesn't matter. Alternatively you could just plug your numbers into the Bru'n water spreadsheet.

 

[TkmLinus]

Assuming a 5 gal batch and using my process efficiency / losses your water profile would look something like this...

View attachment 739773

According to Martin Brungard, who knows a lot about water...

View attachment 739774

So your beer will turn out just fine You did not use too much gypsum. In fact, based on Martin's direction, a little more gypsum may have improved it.

With a few more details like how you mixed the salts and water quantities (e.g all in mash or divided between sparge and mash, etc) the exact profile could be dialed in but 10-20% up or down probably doesn't matter. Alternatively you could just plug your numbers into the Bru'n water spreadsheet.

Thanks so much for the informative reply! I'll have to start messing around with Bru'n water. I think water may be the next thing for me to start messing with to become a better brewer