Well, there'd have to be quite a bit of the stuff to absorb all ambient humidity during the time period when the empeg is coming up to ambient temperature. I don't think its absorption rate is nearly large enough, unless you encase the empeg in the stuff. :-)

Did you ever wonder why silica comes with that 'Do Not Eat' warning? Try taking a fresh bag of it and dropping it in some water - the balls shatter into nice little sharp shards. [/useless trivia]

-Zeke