Calcium Chloride or Carnonate??

[Ski12568]

So I just noticed I screwed up and purchased Calcium Carbonate when this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/
says to use Calcium Chloride. Should I leave it out and just use the gypsum (brew day started) or can it be used as a substitute? Thank you

 

[giraffe]

Calcium carbonate is chalk. It raises the ph, where as calcium chloride and gypsum both lower the ph. Just use gypsum to target your mash ph, if you are already brewing.

 

[McKnuckle]

Calcium Carbonate is chalk, which raises alkalinity (higher pH)... the complete opposite of Calcium Chloride (CaCl), which raises Calcium (Ca) and lowers pH. They are NOT equivalent at all.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-4.html

 

[Ski12568]

Thank you both! Pushing it to the side.

 

[trentm]

Well I'm not the expert here but sounds like you need quick advice. I think no. I think calcium carbonate is chalk. If so it is sometime used to try to increase the pH of the mash but the big guys say it is very insoluble and ends up not doing much in mash. There are complex ways of getting it to dissolve but better off using Slaked Lime if you need to raise pH.

Since you don't have Calcium Chloride, you could use gypsum to get the calcium in your mash to at least a minimum level. Use some NaCl (table salt w/o iodine or additives) to add some chloride but watch your sodium levels.

If you are brewing a malt forward beer you may want to put off your brew day until you get some CaCl2

Minimum calcium may be around 25 ppm
Maximum sodium may be around 100 ppm but since you may have a lot of sulfate from the gypsum try to keep it lower.

Please take this advice with a grain of salt (pun intended) I am no expert.

edit - I see you got the advice you needed.

 

[Ski12568]

Your response is still helpful. I was wondering if I could use a little of that pink salt but I just used gypsum. Its a pale ale, and with just the gypsum I added about 1/8 tsp of lactic acid to get the mash pH down to 5.4. This is my first time messing with water so I didn't expect it to go smooth, but not purchasing the correct addition bugs me. I even had it written down! Oh well. I was slipping on my attention to detail. Used bottled purified water.

 

[trentm]

Sounds like your beer is going to be great. I really like that pink salt on food but there must be something else in it that makes it pink.