Using Campden Tablets?

[youngbrewer]

Hiya all,

I have read here to put half a campden tablet in to 25 liters of water the night before you want to brew is this right if not please correct me

cheers

[Damfoose]

You can bung the half a crushed tablet in 20 min before brew time if you want they work straight away no waiting.

[youngbrewer]

and that would be fine

cool

[Ditch]

Twenty minutes? I just sling it in there, turn my back and open the tins. And I'm fastidious to the point of obsession about 'getting things just so'.

He. Saying that? My last brew, I forgot the Camden tab altogether! In a panic stricken knee jerk response, I then slung an entire, uncrushed one into the FV ~ this after I'd done Everything else and was walking away, finished for the night. But I still figured I'd lost a brew.

As if! I have a pint in front of me as I type. Tastes f*cking great!

As St. Daab used to council me; 'Relax. Enjoy. It's meant to be fun.'

[youngbrewer]

As St. Daab used to council me; 'Relax. Enjoy. It's meant to be fun.'

yep i know what you mean but you just want to get it right don't you!!!!
i will be getting some of these

[Ditch]

Oh yes, don't get me wrong; They're a 'must have' alright. Adding the CT is like looking both ways before crossing the road.

My point was that I added it a bit late ~ after the malt extract had hit the water ~ but add it I most certainly did. I'm just saying there's no need to set the egg timer as ye add it. The effect of it hitting the water is widely said to be 'Just about instantaneous'.

I'm the sort who wants to set a stop watch, the moment somebody tells me a time. Tell me 'About ten minutes' and I go to pieces. I like to know precisely. And there's really very little need for that mind set around HB.

So, yeah; Sling it in and get on. No need to worry about time scales there

[Bongo]

True,chill let go and no worries,not easy is it said Marjorie Dawes.

[Coppertone]

I have different question on the use of Campden tabs. I use thin bleach to sterilise all my PET bottles. If I used a large container with water and thin bleach solution to sterilise all my bottles and then after rinsing the container and bottles, could I refill the container up with tap water, throw the bottles in with half a Campden and would this ensure that no chlorine from the bleach remains in the bottles?

Cheers,
Coppertone.

[sparky Paul]

could I refill the container up with tap water, throw the bottles in with half a Campden and would this ensure that no chlorine from the bleach remains in the bottles?

Provided you have rinsed the bottles well enough, say 3 or 4 times with a little clean water, there should be no need for the campden. I'm not one for unnecessarily complicating matters if I can help it.

Oh yes, don't get me wrong; They're a 'must have' alright. Adding the CT is like looking both ways before crossing the road.

My point was that I added it a bit late ~ after the malt extract had hit the water ~ but add it I most certainly did.

Once you have mixed the wort, it's too late to add campden - by then any chlorine/chloramine in the water will have already reacted with the wort creating the undesirable flavours that it does. Additionally, you run the risk of knocking back the yeast, as campden does kill yeast.

FWIW, I never add campden as a matter of course. In many parts of the country, adding campden is absolutely essential due to the excessive use of chlorine/chloramine, but it's not the case everywhere in the UK.

[lotus_elan]

hi
what are the actual pro's and con's for camden tablets

[Coppertone]

Thanks Paul,

I actually thought that it would uncomplicate matters by allowing me to rinse the bottles quickly and then let the campden do the rest if I knew that the campden would eliminate any leftover chlorine from the bleach. Plus as their is chlorine in my tap water I thought that the final rinse in the container with the campden would be better than a final rinse with tap water.

Sounds a bit overboard, but I think that it would speed me up knowing that a quick rinse followed by a dunking would result in sterile bottles with no chlorine.

[sparky Paul]

I would think that the actual amount of residual water left in the bottle would mean that the effect would be almost zero. You could let the bottles drain for a while to minimise this.

hi
what are the actual pro's and con's for camden tablets

The obvious advantage is that it will remove chlorine and chloramine from the water. What it actually does is bind with the chlorines to form an inert salt. If left, these chlorines react with compounds in the wort to produce 'off' flavours in the beer.

The problem is that campden, or sodium metabisulphate, also kills yeast. If you overdose it, or add it to water with little or no chlorine, you run the risk of leaving residual campden in the water, which may later affect the brewing yeast.