Salt in Beer

[pbts]

Greetings,

In Randy Mosher's Tasting Beer, he writes that you can use a small amount of salt to improve overall taste. We're making a scotch ale this weekend (all grain). How much salt might we add, and when? In the mash or the kettle or during fermentation or maybe even when poured?

Thanks
PBTS

[TheDarkSide]

This doesn't really answer you question but the Portsmouth Brewery has a beer on tap with salt:

http://portsmouthbrewery.blogspot.com/2010/06/gose-by-any-other-name.html

Never heard of it before but now it seems I've seen several posts on different forums about salt in beer. Unforutnately when I was there a couple weeks ago, I had no clue what it was and passed on it.

[Stinkfist]

does he mean salt or salts? like gypsum, chalk....etc

[JohnF]

If you want the beer to taste salty (eg Gose) I would add it post fermentation to taste. If you are trying to increase sodium and chloride but not make it taste salty, there are tons of guidelines out there but I would stay under 100 ppm sodium and conventional wisdom is to keep sulfate low if sodium is high.

[ajdelange]

I've noted here before that when I was a kid there were salt shakers on the bar in working men's pubs - and they weren't there exclusively for the bowl of hard boiled eggs which was also a fixture. It is well known that limited amounts of chloride can soften, sweeten and mellow a beer and brewers take this into consideration in formulation of recipes. I haven't seen anyone shake salt into his Bud in a long time (but then again I'm seldom found in places where Bud is consumed) but there is no reason why you can't try this at home. You might even want to start out with something like Bud so you won't be ruining good beer if you over do it. It might also be of interest to see which styles (and which breweries products) benefit most from a bit of salt.

And while I can't be absolutely certain it seems from the context that "salt" means sodium chloride.

[Chupa LaHomebrew]

Does anyone know, with common table salt, which element is providing the flavor / ability to transmit flavors to the tastebuds? Is it the sodium or the chloride? Or both in conjunction? I think that would provide some insight as to whether common table salt could add an element that say, calcium chloride could not.

Common table salt (NaCl) is proven to literally transmit flavors more readily to the tastebuds, so it is not just making food taste saltier, it is literally making it taste better.

This is tangential, but a brewery I was interning for did an oyster stout recently, and despite a lot of oysters and oyster juice, it was barely noticable in the final beer, even if you knew what to look for. My thoughts on this were, why not actually add a bit of sea salt after fermentation? That would give a nice mineral sea flavor and you could get more bang for your buck form the oysters.

[speed]

if you are going to brew with salt do not use table salt, use sea salt.. its pure, table salt has iodine in it.

[JohnF]

sea salt is sold under the pretense that it is not pure. Pure, non-iodized, salt can be bought in a number of forms. I would get pickling salt myself.