NewnanBrewer

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Hi. I'm new to the forum and hoping for some serious help.

My water at home sucks so I plan to use RO water. I get the mash adjustments for minerals but am stuck on the sparge. Do I add the minerals to:-

1) the HLT
2) to the mash at dough in
3) to the top of the grain bed as I sparge
4) to the BK


Planning to brew tomorrow. Please help.

Thanks

Yooper

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You'll use your mash additions in the mash. I mix them into the strike water and then stir in the grain.

I don't use other additions but if you use "sparge additions", you'd add them to the boil kettle and not the sparge water.

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jeepinjeepin

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Build enough water beforehand to cover mash and sparge.

Edit: Don't listen to me. Yooper knows what she is doing.

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NewnanBrewer

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Great. And this applies to RO water also right?

Thanks for the help.

captainL

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I'll take a stab. You are doing 2 different things with water addittions.

#1. Mash PH. Probably the most important aspect. So only the mash really matters.

#2. Flavor profile. If you use just RO water for sparge it will dilute out you additions from you mash. What kind of ending water profile do you want. So it depends how you load it up in your water calculator.

I have to say I treat all the water and then remove what I need for the sparge. I'm usually only adding gypsum, calcum chl, and epson salt. But I believe depending on the additions you might not want to add to the sparge.

mabrungard

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Mash water and sparge water differ mainly in their alkalinity. Mash water may have alkalinity requirements while sparge water should always have low alkalinity. So, it may not always be advisable to treat your mash and sparge water in the same way as mentioned above. RO water has low alkalinity so its ideal for sparing use.

With respect to what to do with mineral additions for sparging water, adding them at any point in the process is acceptable. That means adding them to the HLT or directly into the kettle would be OK. Since chalk should never be added to sparge water, that means that there is little worry that any of the other minerals added as part of the sparge water addition won't dissolve. Minerals like gypsum, CaCl2, and table salt are quite soluble.

You could add the sparge water minerals directly to the mash after the first runoff, but I suggest that the HLT or kettle are better options. You would not add the sparge additions to the main mash since that would through off the mash pH conditions.

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ChickenHops

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I use all RO water. I used Bru'n Water to come up with 3 basic profiles that cover most of what I brew.

As I'm sure you're aware, mash and sparge water each has its own mineral profile.

I usually add minerals to the HLT just before I transfer to the MLT. This goes for mash and sparge water.

Not all minerals are readily soluable. Make sure they're stirred in well. Minerals can settle to the bottom of the HLT and not get into the mash or sparge water. (I may start adding the mash water minerals to the grain at dough in and sparge minerals to the grain bed because of this).

FWIW, I normally use some combination of gypsum (calcium sulfate), chalk (calcium carbonate), food grade Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate), pickle crisp (calcium chloride), and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). I use more gypsum than anything. I weigh minerals on my hop scale.

The tap water is good water in my area is good. I probably don't need to bother with RO. OTOH, it really isn't much of a bother. I like it because it's consistent. I had some issues last winter which I thought might be water related. I haven't had the same issue since I started building up my own water.

NewnanBrewer

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THanks for the responses guys. Here goes to my my first RO brew.

I'm going to go with minerals into the HLT for the sparge and into the mash at dough in.

NewnanBrewer