Lifesystems Neutralising Tablets / Ascorbic Acid

[tkerby]

Run out of Campden tablets and wanting to get an IPA on tonight. Anyone got any idea whats in my Lifesystems Neutralising tablets as they claim to remove taste, smell and colour from Chlorine and Iodine treated water

See http://www.stratford-pharmacy.co.uk/ind ... ductid=144

[tkerby]

Well, I'm fairly sure this is ascorbic acid. Given there are no safety warnings of any kind and the vitamin c like smell, I think its fairly likely. Plus, I tasted a tiny bit of powder (having checked concentration specs) and it tasted likely.

Looking online, it seems that this is now used to replace sulphates in water treatment and removes chlorine and chloramine, the latter of which is in my supply.

Given I'm brewing IPA with edinburgh water, hopefully the yeast vit I added will have added a little to the Sulphate content o keep the beer nice and hoppy. Well, as hoppy as you can get from a Muntons Gold kit

[tkerby]

This is interesting but slightly worrying - fermentation is taking quite a while to really get going. Its been 24 hours and there is just under 1cm of foam on the top. That said, there is about the same amount of yeast sitting on the bottom of the fermenter, clearly more than added so its not dead.

The Woodfordes Nog was much quicker and foamed like crazy. This Muntons Gold IPA seems to be a different beast and is slower to ferment. I'm not worried about the water treatment (yet) as a cause though as my starter was equally slow and activity only started to pick up after 30 hours or so, yet the amount of yeast on the bottom seemed to have trebeled in the time.

The yeast is a Muntons premium.

Does anyone know if ascorbic acid has any effect on yeasts?

[tkerby]

That said, it did have a year and a half on the sell by date, although who knows what conditions it was stored under