Fixing water for mini mash ...useless?

He problem as I see it is that if I got my water report and fixed my water for a brew, it would not take into account what was in the Extract.....right?

So is there anyway to CORRECTLY fix a mini mashes water?

If a large percentage of your fermentables come from extract, then the best thing you can do is to have as little mineralization in the water as possible. Brewing with a larger percentage of RO or distilled water is more likely to produce a good beer. If the local water has low mineralization, then its OK too.


Don't worry about the steeping or mini mash too much in this case. But as the mini mashes grow to mashes, then you need to think harder about your water.

That's what I was thinking. I'm involved with a brewpub that AGs and we're getting our water tested but at home I mini mash and was thinking it would be useless! What about PH and so forth. I still want to get that lower for lighter colored brews. Typically I had 3-4 lbs of grains and 4-5 lbs of extract so a majority comes form the extract.

Would adjusting the minerals help lower the PH? But then again . . . the extract is the problem.

What's the pH going into the fermenter? If its between 5.0 and 5.2 or even 5.4 you don't need to concern yourself. Other than having the wort go to the fermentor at a pH that helps the yeast establish a favorable environment there is no reason to be concerned with pH in an extract beer.

If the extract you used is such that a lot of inorganic phosphate is carried into the boil then yes, adding calcium salts can lower the pH.