Greetings,
I’ve never used slaked lime before my last two batches. When I’ve tried it, it did not raise the ph (or the ph was way lower than expected) I calibrate my meter before every brewday, was wondering do I have a bad batch? Or is there a double secret way of adding it. I just chuck it in with my other water additives.
Thanks
Slaked lime (pickling lime) will dissolve easily and do the job as advertised. But that is if it is pure (or nearly so) calcium hydroxide. It may be contaminated with, or over time revert to, calcium carbonate (chalk,) which of course is insoluble under normal conditions and will do nothing for you. You can easily test your lime. Take a small sample and put a couple of drops of acid (lactic, phosphoric, whatever is on hand in your brewery) on it. If it bubbles at all, it is at least partly chalk. No bubbles, it’s good. Luckily, it’s as cheap to replace as it is easy to test.m, especially this time of year when all the canning supplies are in season at Walmart. I’ve never had a bad bag of Mrs. Wage’s (I think that’s the name?) from there. But I do test often to be sure.
Do you use Brewtan B? Joe F, the company rep/Homebrewer, says to ensure you add it a minute before everything else. I used to just throw it all in together but it turns out — like in life — the how is more important than the what. Brewtan will ‘bind’ everything up if added all at once.
Never knew the bubble trick to pickling lime. Robert is a pretty fart smeller.
Pretty sure I picked that one up from Martin. Credit where due.
I never heard the bit about BrewTan. I do all my other water treatment the night before, but add my “trifecta” right before mashing in. Thought it would bind only metals, not the carbonates. More to learn.
Maybe I got the boil and the strike mixed up. Here’s the note I received in answer to a question:
“Thanks for the message! I apologize if there is any confusion.
I always add Brewtan B in 2 stages - 1/2 tsp per 5 gallon mash/sparge water and 1/2 tsp (rehydrated) 16 min from the end of the boil.
The water addition allows for stability by chelating our ions involved in oxidative events, while the addition in the boil serves as a kettle fining agent for clarification.
You do need to add the Brewtan B in at least 1 min before kettle fining agents like Irish moss or whirlfloc to allow for proper function. Otherwise they cancel out each other.
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
Joe”
I’ll give it a test. I’ll be cranky if it’s no good, I just bought the stuff.
Cool, that sounds like what I was going by. Thx for checking with horse’s mouth.