For those of us in the frozen states, pickling lime is hard to find this time of year. None was found in the grocery stores or hardware stores, or big box stores, as canning is a seasonal activity for those stores. I did find it in a farm supply store, where the canning section is there year round. Not the first time I have bought a brewing item at the farm store.
Still on the hunt for Magnesium Chloride. The local health store did not have it. Suggestions as to where to try?
Edit: searching around, I did find that pickling lime is also known as Kalkwasser.
I bought mine on-line. Given the gas prices it easily pays to have stuff shipped to your house instead of driving around to find a place that sells it.
Magnesium chloride came from a fellow home brewer/reef aquarium owner. They use MgCl2 to build aquarium water. But lately I have not been using magnesium salts. Malt brings about 150 mg/l magnesium into the mash. That ought to be enogh. As a result I stopped adding Mg to the water. But if you want it, check on-line. They have to sell it somewhere.
Magnesium chloride is an important coagulant (E511 [8][clarification needed]) used in the preparation of tofu from soy milk. In Japan it is sold as nigari (にがり, derived from the Japanese word for “bitter”), a white powder produced from seawater after the sodium chloride has been removed, and the water evaporated. In China it is called lushui (卤水). Nigari or lushui consists mostly of magnesium chloride, with some magnesium sulfate and other trace elements. It is also an ingredient in baby formula milk.
…so maybe you could find it in one of those “World Market” type of grocery stores - we’ve got some in town and that’s where I’ve been able to find my agar powder for making slants.
Kai - that is good info, maybe I won’t worry about the Mg. Haven’t burned much gas looking for it, as my town is really small, and there are not many options for such stuff.
Hokerer - saw that on Wikipedia also. Next time in the suburbs I might stop at the largest Asian market in the state to look around. Sure they have some interesting sugars there too.