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mabrungard · 09-06-2012, 01:58 PM

I spar with AJ on occasion regarding the utility of tap water. He tends to default to using RO earlier than me. But in this case, don't even think about using this water for brewing. It will be difficult to brew great beer with that water. Do yourself a favor and incorporate RO water as a large component of your brewing water practice.

Sorry to confirm the bad news.

blacksailj · 09-06-2012, 02:44 PM

From my understanding you have 2 salt additions, one in the mash and the other in the kettle. For the mash you need to calculate how much water is used and add salts for that volume. Assume that each pound of grain absorbs 0.5 quarts of water and subtract that from your dough in volume. This is your 1st runnings.

After sparging with untreated water take your final preboil volume and subtract your 1st runnings to get your actual Sparge volume that needs to be treated during the boil.
I hope this helps, and if I'm off someone else chime in.

**gjabball** · 09-06-2012, 02:59 PM

So do I divide 1 tsp by two or add 1 tsp twice?

rhamilton · 09-06-2012, 03:12 PM

Dear lord that is some bad water

Using EZ-Water 3.0.2 --

I would use a 50% RO / Tap water blend to get your minerals and ions at an acceptable level (and within Palmer's recommendations). With that blend, you'll have a great water for accenting malts.

Adding 2g Epsom Salt will get that blend more balanced. If you want to accent hops, add 2g Gypsum along with the 2g Epsom Salt.

That takes care of your mineral content but you'll want to monitor your mash pH and make any adjustments needed.

**ajdelange** · 09-06-2012, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gjabball

One more question. The salts go into the water and the grain goes into the grist but Palmer was saying you need to account for the difference between your mash water and your final preboil volume. Do I need to adjust anything in my boil kettle after I for sparge for the extra untreated water?

There are differing approaches here. One is to treat the whole volume of brewing water the same way. In this way you don't need to adjust for the differences between sparge and mash water. The easiest way to treat it all the same is to treat it all at once but some people don't have a large enough HLT to allow that. In such cases you can still treat both waters the same.

A lot of people are terrified of extracting tannins during the sparge and want to sparge with very soft water. If you are tuning for a particular chemistry in the kettle this usually means adjusting chloride and sulfate in the kettle though sometimes it is necessary to adjust pH in the kettle.

Certainly the simplest is to treat all the water the same. If you are working from RO you will not be adding alkalinity to it (any that might be required will be added to the mash) and you can sparge with it without fear. Kettle adjustment for flavor will not be required then.

Wynne-R · 09-06-2012, 04:03 PM

A little off topic, but how much is a teaspoon in grams? I don’t have a sensitive enough scale to measure small amounts.

Calcium chloride loves to soak up water, maybe a teaspoon would be better. Gypsum, no big deal. The spreadsheets use grams. How to convert?

Wobbegong · 09-06-2012, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wynne-R

how much is a teaspoon in grams? I don’t have a sensitive enough scale to measure small amounts.

It depends on what you have in the teaspoon. Teaspoon is a volume measurement, gram is a weight measurement.

Palmers book has a chart.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-4.html

**gjabball** · 09-06-2012, 04:34 PM

So if I was going to treat the whole water, is 1 tsp for 5 gallons of water? I am trying to figure out the conversion. Also, if I was to do 50/50, it is better to use Epson salt rather that calcium chloride?

I

**gjabball** · 09-06-2012, 04:35 PM

I am just trying to understand what I am doing and why. Thanks guys!

Wynne-R · 09-06-2012, 05:23 PM

Quote:

It depends on what is in the teaspoon

Smart Aleck. I guess I deserved that. Apparently you figured out that what I was meaning to ask is “How much does a teaspoon of brewing salt weigh?” I guess it’s better to get it right than to further confuse already confused people. Thanks for the link.

The consensus is that calcium chloride is necessary for soft water, calcium sulfate is optional, season to taste. Magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salt) and sodium bicarbonate don’t taste good and aren’t necessary.

With your water 50/50 ain’t going to make it. Not even close.