Description

100g Calcium Sulphate – Gypsum

A brewing additive to adjust for water hardness deficient in certain beers.

Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum) is a salt liquor treatment used to increase the mineral content of brewing liquor to produce the desired beer characteristics. It adds sulphate which gives the beer a drier and more bitter effect and correct mouth feel.

Gypsum’s positive effects are to reduce wort pH, improve malt extraction efficiency through enhanced amylolytic activity, give a buffering capacity to the wort, balance the hop flavour for highly hopped beers, improve wort clarity, and remove phosphates and proteins in the wort trub.

When to add Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum) to beer

Gypsum (calcium sulphate) is usually added at the start of the brewing process, but when you add it depends on what you’re trying to adjust.

Typical timing adding Calcium Sulphate

1. Mash stage (all-grain brewing)

• Add gypsum directly to the mash water before or during mash-in.
• This is the most effective time because it affects:
  • mash pH
  • enzyme activity
  • mineral balance from the start

2. Boil (extract or partial mash brewing)

• Add gypsum to the kettle at the start of the boil if you’re working with malt extract.
• This helps adjust the brewing water profile before hop isomerisation happens.

3. Water treatment 

• Many brewers add it to the full volume of brewing liquor before heating or mashing so everything starts balanced.

What gypsum does in beer

Gypsum increases:

• Calcium → improves yeast health, clarity, and protein precipitation
• Sulfate → enhances hop bitterness perception and dryness

When you should use Calcium Sulphate in beer

Use calcium sulphate when you want:

• A crisper, drier finish
• More perceived hop bitterness
• A more pale ale / IPA-style hop profile

When to be careful

Avoid overdoing it because too much calcium sulphate can:

• Make bitterness harsh or “minerally”
• Strip malt sweetness too aggressively

As a rough guide:

• Pale ales / IPAs: higher sulfate (gypsum helps here)
• Malty styles (porters, stouts): lower sulphate or none