Author Topic: Calcium Chloride - Granular, How Dilute  (Read 45922 times)

John@PC

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Re: Calcium Chloride - Granular, How Dilute
« Reply #45 on: May 12, 2015, 08:26:31 PM »
I did the same thing Shane (brewing supply on Amazon) but mixed a more dilute solution to add directly.  Dissolved 12g CaCl2 in a 16oz bottle of water and it works out to 1 Tbs. per gal. milk; 1/4 cup per 4 gal., etc.  Just one less thing to dilute when making cheese :) but I like the simplicity of Pav's suggestion. 

shaneb

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Re: Calcium Chloride - Granular, How Dilute
« Reply #46 on: May 12, 2015, 09:01:10 PM »
Good idea. Did your mix come out clear? Mine had a reddish tinge. I grabbed some coffee filter papers from the supermarket and passed it through that. It is now nice and clear. I now have 1L of calcium chloride which should last me many years. I also have another 200 odd grams of granules left to make more.

Shane

John@PC

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Re: Calcium Chloride - Granular, How Dilute
« Reply #47 on: May 12, 2015, 10:16:44 PM »
I got mine from LD Carlson and it was clear. Did a test with saturated solution and it still was clear.

Offline rsterne

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Re: Calcium Chloride - Granular, How Dilute
« Reply #48 on: September 28, 2020, 02:32:29 AM »
I get it that a 30% solution of Calcium Chloride is 30% by weight, with the other 70% by weight being water.... However, the density of the finished solution is not that of water (1.0 gr/ml), it will be about 1.3 gr/ml, so the total volume given for the example of 1 lb. of Calcium Chloride in 1510 ml of solution is not correct.... The WEIGHT of the solution would be 1510 grams, but the volume would only be about 1160 ml....

I found this out when I dissolved 1 lb. of LD Carlson Calcium Chloride in 1 litre of water, and I only got just over 1.1 litres of solution, not the 1510 ml. quoted in this thread.... Fortunately, I have found the reference for a 30% solution for Cheesemaking use being 30% of Calcium Chloride by weight in several places....  8)

Bob
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Offline mikekchar

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Re: Calcium Chloride - Granular, How Dilute
« Reply #49 on: September 28, 2020, 01:52:43 PM »
Most percentages in cheese making (that I've found, anyway) tend to be w/v rather than w/w.  They are bit like "baker's percetages".  In baker's percentages, you have a quantity of flour and every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of weight of the flour.  So if you have 100 grams of flour and 2% salt, it means you have 2 grams of flour.

In cheese making (most of the time), the liquid is expressed in water.  So if you have 100 ml of water, it weighs 100 grams.  A 30% solution of calcium chloride is 30 grams of calcium chloride in 100 ml of water.  This is crucially important in salt (sodium chloride variety) calculations.  If a recipe says that you have 2% salt, it means that if the cheese weighs 100 grams, that you salt with 2 grams of salt.  Most brine calculations are similarly done with w/v.  So if you have 100 ml of water and you want a 5% brine solution, then you want to add 5 grams of salt.

The big exception to this is Gavin Webber.  For reasons unknown to me, he does his brine calculations using w/w.   So while the solubility of sodium chloride is 36% w/v (36 grams of salt in 100 ml of water), it is 26% in w/w (36 grams of salt in 100 ml of water weighs a total of 136 grams and 36 / 136 = ~26%).  And even more bizarrely he frequently says that his brine is "an 18% fully saturated brine solution"... which is.... frustrating ;-)  But indeed, his brine is 18% w/w and is not fully saturated (which would be 26% w/w).

Even if you look at solubility tables in chemistry, they are almost always w/v, which is why I think everybody except Gavin Webber uses that system (it's much easier to calculate as well).  However, there is a twist for calcium chloride.  Calcium chloride makes crystals and sometimes those crystals have water set up with them.  For each molecule of calcium chloride in a crystal, there can be 0, 1, 2, 4, or 6 molecules of water.  This, of course changes the weight dramatically.  So if you like easy math, you should by "anhydrous" calcium chloride which has crystals with no water.  "Dihydrous" crystals (those with 2 molecules of water) are also common.  The molar mass of CaCl2 is about 110 grams per mol.  The molar mass of water is about 18 grams per mol.  So each water molecule adds about 16% extra weight to the crystal.  In other words "dihydrous" CaCl2 is about 1/3 heavier than the anhydrous version and so you need to add about 1/3 more to get your 30% solution (so you need about 40g per 100 ml of water instead of 30).

Offline Mornduk

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Re: Calcium Chloride - Granular, How Dilute
« Reply #50 on: September 28, 2020, 03:41:59 PM »
For what is worth, I have my bag of CaCl2 and just add 30% of the weight the recipe is calling form. So if a recipe calls for 3ml CaCl2, I'll measure 0.9g of CaCl2 granules and then add some distilled water to dilute for a few minutes before adding to the milk. It's not only cheaper but more convenient to store etc.

Offline rsterne

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Re: Calcium Chloride - Granular, How Dilute
« Reply #51 on: September 28, 2020, 11:32:12 PM »
Ricki Caldwell's Blog shows the calculation done as 30 gr. CaCl2 plus 70 gr. water equals 100 gr. total (note that the volume of solution would be much less than 100 ml, in fact only about 77 ml).... That is also given above from Leener's for how they make their CaCl2 solution, so I'll stick to that.... Incidently, that is pretty much a saturated solution....

Bob
« Last Edit: September 29, 2020, 03:56:13 AM by rsterne »
Cheesemaking has rekindled our love of spending time together, Diane and me!