Topo Chico Clone Recipe
This month I have a slightly different brewing education article for you. More of a, what else can I make with my brewing equipment besides beer. In this case, that something else is a Topo Chico clone. For those who do not know what Topo Chico is, it is a sparkling (highly carbonated) mineral water sourced from a single spring near Monterrey Mexico. It comes in unflavored as well as flavored versions: Twist of Lime and Twist of Grapefruit. Topo Chico has been very popular for the last few years and is usually available in grocery stores. Over the past 2 years however, the availability has been inconsistent and sometimes non-existent. In 2022 a drought in Mexico affected the water supply in Monterrey with authorities asking companies to share their water supplies with the local population. A shortage in 2021 was brough on by “raw materials” shortage (likely glass).
https://xtalks.com/why-is-the-us-experi ... tage-3189/
My wife is a big fan of Twist of Lime Topo Chico so we regularly had it on our shopping list. After several fruitless searches on grocery store shelves last spring, I thought, this can’t be too hard to duplicate. A quick search on the internet found that others have made clone recipes. Also, Topo Chico lists their water profile on their web page so we know what to aim for in the mineral profile.
Since many of us homebrewers already keg and also do water adjustments to get our desired water profiles for different beer styles, we are already equipped, and likely have on hand most if not all the minerals/salts needed, to create a clone. Of the recipes I did find, none listed their starting water profile, so I set out to create a clone recipe based on RO water (why reuse the wheel when you can reinvent it!).
Creating a Clone for Plain Topo Chico
While my goal was to duplicate the Twist of Lime version, I first needed to match the plain version. The ingredient list on the bottle is very short: sparkling mineral water. The website water profile, https://www.topochico.com/minerals, lists the following mineral content.
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ppm
Calcium 120
Chloride 63
Magnesium 11
Potassium 3.6
Sodium 41
Sulfate 180
Total Dissolved Solids 630
Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 140These are all minerals we as homebrewers are used to targeting when trying to match brewing water profiles (With the exception of Potassium, which I ignored due to the low concentration).
The easiest way to build up a water profile is to use one of the many available online calculators or spreadsheets we already use as brewers. I normally use BrewersFriend for water calculations. Other popular water calculators are BeerSmith and Bru’nWater. In this case I ended up using the spreadsheet from Braukaiser for a specific reason I will explain below.
Salts/Additives used
To match the water profile for Topo Chico, I used the following different salts/additives.
• Gypsum (CaSO4)
• Epsom Salt (MgSO4)
• Table Salt (NaCl) (Kosher/iodine free)
• Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)
• Baking Soda (NaHCO3)
• Chalk (CaCO3)
Of the above, chalk is the least used by brewers, in part due to the fact it is not 100% soluble in water or normal mash. Most brewing calculators assume 50% utilization but actual utilization can vary. The way to make Chalk 100% soluble is to acidify the water. Fortunately, carbonating water creates carbonic acid, and at the pressures used to carbonated this clone recipe, it is more than enough acidity to 100% dissolve the chalk. The Braukaiser water spreadsheet has an option on the advanced tab to select 100% utilization of chalk, this is the reason I used Braukaiser for this recipe.
Using the spreadsheet and set up for 5 gallons (entered as sparge water), here are the salt additions that resulted to closely match the Topo Chico water profile.
Salts for 5 gallon Topo Chico Clone
The numbers across the top are the amount of each salt in grams for a 5 gallon batch. The column on the right is the resulting ppm for each mineral. This is reasonably close to the published profile and in taste tests is very close to store bought Topo Chico. (The alkalinity in the Topo Chico profile of 140 ppm (as CaCO3) can be converted to alkalinity as HCO3 by multiplying by 1.22, so 140(CaCO3) x 1.22 = 170.2(HCO3) , the alkalinity of the clone also closely matches the profile.)
Twist of Lime Version
Moving on to Twist of Lime version, the ingredient list on the bottle expanded to, sparkling mineral water, lime flavoring, and citric acid. There was no information available as to quantities for these 2 additional ingredients so it was on to a little bit of science and some trial and error.
For the citric acid addition, I started by measuring the pH of the real Twist of Lime Topo Chico.
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pH Reading Carbonation level
3.40 Carbonated
3.52 FlatFor the lime flavoring, I found my local grocery stored stocked McCormick Lime Extract in 1 oz bottles. After some trial and error, I found that if you want to closely match the Topo Chico Twist of Lime flavor level, about ½ oz in 5 gallons will be close. My wife wanted a stronger lime flavor so I use 1 oz in 5 gallons.
Citric Acid 15 g
McCormick Lime Extract ½ to 1 oz, depending on your taste
Added ingredients for Twist of Lime clone
Carbonation Level and Serving
One final component is the carbonation level. I did not try to measure what Topo Chico is actually carbonated too, but went will trial and error. I settled on ~40 psi at 38 degrees which is approximately 5.3 volumes of CO2, highly carbonated! This leads to serving issues. I have not successfully been able to serve off the keg without a big loss in carbonation, so I resort to counter pressure filling both one half liter and one liter soda bottles and storing those in the refrigerator.
Results
In the end I feel like this came out to a very close clone of Topo Chico. More importantly I can tailor the flavoring level to my wife’s preference and do not have to worry about Topo Chico shortages anymore. As a side benefit I can also justify some of my brewing equipment costs to something other than brewing.
Additional notes:
In the process of creating this recipe, I started with a 1 gallon test batch, then progressed to 2.5 gallons and finally settled on a 5 gallon batch size recipe. In the first attempt with the 1 gallon recipe, I started with Brewersfriend water calculator and did not correct for the 100% solubility of chalk in carbonated water and ended up with a noticeably chalky taste (no surprise). That was corrected by switching to the Braukaiser spreadsheet.
Braukaiser has a lot of information on water chemisty and is a technical advisor for Brewersfriend contributing to updates for their water calculator. He has a very detailed post on dissolving chalk in carbonated water for those what want to see the detailed chemistry.
Links to Braukaiser.
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Braukaiser.com
http://braukaiser.com/documents/Kaiser_ ... ulator.xls
http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2011/03 ... et-update/
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Bu ... lved_chalk
