for anyone who does all grain with water additions

[zorak1066]

was wondering... do you notice that beer made with chemicals added to your water ie Epsom salt or gypsum gives you more gas than extract or non-chemically tweaked beers?

been sampling my first try at all grain and noticed a coincidental increase in stomach gas... wondering if there is a connection.

-z-

[Kealia]

Nope. Do you notice any more yeast in this batch perhaps?

[zorak1066]

used an old pack of us04... best by nov 2014.. made it in march. I notice the bottles have more trub on the bottom than usual despite not siphoning up from the bottom of the fermenter.

shrug... probably something I ate or drank before unless I am really sensitive to Epsom salt??

[Beer-lord]

Me either but how much did you drink before you noticed this? Maybe it wasn't the water treatments but the all grain?????? I don't know why that would be.

[ScrewyBrewer]

used an old pack of us04... best by nov 2014.. made it in march. I notice the bottles have more trub on the bottom than usual despite not siphoning up from the bottom of the fermenter.

shrug... probably something I ate or drank before unless I am really sensitive to Epsom salt??

I think you may want to try cold crashing your beer before packaging next time, to knock more yeast out of suspension, which is the likely culprit in your 'er gas situation.

When using ezWatercalculator, or other water profile software, they display a 'safe' range of additions. What were your calculated parts per million of the additions you made?

[Kealia]

used an old pack of us04... best by nov 2014.. made it in march. I notice the bottles have more trub on the bottom than usual despite not siphoning up from the bottom of the fermenter.

shrug... probably something I ate or drank before unless I am really sensitive to Epsom salt??

My initial reaction would be that the trub is the culprit. It's usually some combination of trub/yeast that give people gas. I've never once heard of anybody saying it happened when they switched from extract to AG or when they started using additions (until now, that is ).


How many bottles have you had, just one?
If so, maybe give the next one a good solid week in the fridge chilling to really compact things down and pour extra carefully so as not to get any trub in the glass and see if that makes a difference.

[zorak1066]

happened twice now and there are 2 possible culprits: the beer or the glucosamine / chondroitin ive been drinking with my nightly tea.

each time with the stout I consumed about half a liter. prior to coming into work the other night I had a very small glass with no ill effect so I am leaning toward the chondroitin now.

it was a 1.5 gallon batch at 1.06 gravity... and since the yeast was old by my standards I just pitched the full pack of us04. the stamped best by date was dec 2014 so it was probably produced in 2012. I bought it in 2013 and it was in the fridge the whole time til I pitched it in march of this year. I figured it was old and not very viable so I used the full 11g. mr malty says 8 grams were required for this yeast since it was old... so not really an overpitch by much.

I do slow careful pours so no trub gets in my glass. it sat in the bottle for a full month so the yeast should've flocked out after carbing.

on thinking about things extracts are made from grains so if extracts don't bother me, neither should all grain beers. Epsom salts do have a laxative effect.. but the dose for use as a laxative is 8oz of water and one tablespoon of the salt. since I barely used 1 gram that likely isn't it.

tomorrow i'll pass on the beer with my morning meal. I am drinking my tea with chondroitin mix now. so... if by noon I'm full of gas then mystery solved.


update: I should've done this before posting- googled glucosamine/chondroitin and lo and behold possible side effects include stomach distress. duh. I started taking it about the same time I started sampling the beer. the gas would hit in the morning about an hour after eating and drinking my stout.... or 6 hrs after I usually start drinking my tea/glucosamine/etc mix. my first instinct was that it was the beer because of how soon afterward the gas started. lol.. dopey me. will have a better idea by afternoon.

[zorak1066]

screwybrewer, I did use ezwater calc and the additions were all well within the 'safe' limits. I wasn't shooting for a profile as much as just getting balance. I really didn't add all that much of anything.

[braukasper]

Me I could not tolerate the Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate, MgSO4). It is used as a laxative. If that was the case you should have the same issues with anything high in magnesium.

[ScrewyBrewer]

screwybrewer, I did use ezwater calc and the additions were all well within the 'safe' limits. I wasn't shooting for a profile as much as just getting balance. I really didn't add all that much of anything.

Then I guess the process of elimination is your best bet. Everyone's system reacts differently to certain foods, hop bitterness, etc. I'm not a doctor or anything but I haven't had any reactions to water additions whether they've been high or low. I did drink a friends Christmas Ale a few years back and had the runs later that night, coincidence or not. I thought the cause was the yeast, the beer was dark and capable of hiding a lot of trub.