Brewing Gypsum: Calcium Sulphate

CaSO4 (Anhydrous molar weight 136.14) is used by advanced brewers to improve the wort chemistry as burton salts. Sulfates improve the hoppiness and Calcium gives hardness for dark beers. Details on dosage here. Please use the packet sparingly, a few gm per batch is all you need. It is also called ‘Gypsum’, ‘Alabaster’ or ‘Plaster of Paris’ which is an important part of Burton-on-Trent salts.

Benefits:

1. It helps regulate pH which is important for improving efficiency in all grain mashing
2. Improves hoppiness. Hence used extensively in high malt all-grain to restore the malt balance.
3. Improves clarity by removing Phosphates and proteins from the wort trub.
4. It is also widely used as a coagulant in Soya Tofu making. The Soya Paneer Curd or Tofu made using Gypsum are firmer, have bigger grains than the traditional Nigari.

This is extra pure salt for brewing purposes. Unlike commercial salts, here Arsenic is 0.005% and lead 0.005% Zinc and Iron are also less than 0.001%

Pack contains 25gm of this brewing salt.

Dosage: 0.15 to 1.2gm per liter. 1 gram of Magnesium Sulfate in 3.8 liters of water changes the salt levels by 103 ppm sulfate, 26 ppm Magnesium and adds 108 ppm to the hardness

However, be careful in using too much of sulfates in the wort as it can remove the Phosphates needed for a healthy yeast colony. Also, too many sulfates can cause a sulfur burn feeling in the final beer.