brewsmith water calculation

Hey Folks: I have been playing w/ BS determining the amount of minerals I need to add to my water. The profile has a box for gallons of water. I assume this should be total boil volume? If this is total water volume do I treated all of the brewing water the same; mash, sparge and extra water?? I guess I should add all of the salts into the MLT containing all of the brew water, heat to dissolve then mash and sparge??? This water stuff is tough. My water is low in most minerals so additions are needed. Any thoughts appreciated? Charlie
ps beersmith not brewsmith

You need to base things off your planned volume into primary. Just because you boil 6 gallons of water with 100 ppm Ca doesn't mean you wind up with 5 gallons of water still with 100 ppm of Ca. The calcium doesn't boil off, just the water. Get me?

Good point. I definitely tinker and meddle with my water chemistry and I always tweak so the final volume is what has the correct concentrations of things. It is true that what I mash with is somewhat more dilute across the board than what winds up in the fermenter. Whenever I check the pH of my mash it is always 5.2 (without using 5.2, just RO/DI water + salts + grains). Keep in mind that this was just MO not any dark acidifying grains. As long as we keep the pH around 5.2 we don't risk tannin extraction and should get great enzymatic activity. I'd say tweak to the final volume rather than the mash volume and RDWHAHB.