Adding salts to beer

[Toobly]

Hello, I can’t seem to find a solid answer to this and am hoping someone can add some insight. I’m wondering when you’re calculating the ppm of salts to add to beer are you calculating for the mash, boil or the final volume you’re fermenting at.

For example, my water supply has zero chloride ions. I usually boil 2.5 gallons and bring up to 5 gallons for primary fermentation. Should I calculate enough calcium chloride to get 100ppm in the boil or enough to get 100ppm for the final volume? Which would be 200ppm during the boil then it would dilute to 100pm once I bring it up to 5 gallons. This is just an example, not the actual numbers I am looking for. Hope that wasn’t too confusing... Thanks in advanced!

 

[mabrungard]

Malt provides a lot of ions in the beer. But its best to divorce yourself from worrying about the ion content in the beer. Just worry about the starting ion concentrations in your water.

100 ppm chloride is a bit high, why are you targeting that and not including any sulfate?

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

My question continues to be...
Say I’m using RO water and starting from scratch, the software says I need for example 80ppm (I know that probably not a real number), how much in actual weight or tsp or tbsp is that. I can never find this information anywhere.

 

[KingSchultz]

For dilute solutions like wort,

ppm = (milligrams of solute) / (liters of solution)

 

[Toobly]

I’m not worried about the actual numbers, I’m wondering how I should calculate how much to add. The total volume (5 gal) or the wort boil (2.5 gal). The numbers themselves are irrelevant and just being used as an example.

 

[Toobly]

My question continues to be...
Say I’m using RO water and starting from scratch, the software says I need for example 80ppm (I know that probably not a real number), how much in actual weight or tsp or tbsp is that. I can never find this information anywhere.

You need to calculate the weight of the chloride ion and add according to that. For exampl, the total molecular weight of CaCl2(2H2O) is 147 g/mol and the Cl- weight is 48.3% of that, or 0.483. So, if you dissolve 1 gram of Calcium Chloride in 1 gallon of water you get 0.483 grams of chloride. Mg/L is the same as ppm so you have 483mg in 1 gallon, or 3.785 liters. 483mg/3.785L = 127.6 mg/L or 127.6 ppm.

You want 80ppm so if you want a 5 gallon batch it’s 5 x 3.785 =19.25 Liters

80ppm = 80mg/L

19.25 Liters x 80mg = 1,514mg of Chloride

1,514mg/0.483 = 3,134.58 mg

You would want a total of 3,134.58mg (3.134g) of Calcium Chloride to get 80ppm in a 5 gallon batch.

My question is do you add the 3.134 grams of CaCl2 to the 2.5 gallons that you’re boiling or should you add it to the whole 5 gallons and THEN take the amount of water you need to boil. Does that make sense?

 

[Toobly]

Malt provides a lot of ions in the beer. But its best to divorce yourself from worrying about the ion content in the beer. Just worry about the starting ion concentrations in your water.

100 ppm chloride is a bit high, why are you targeting that and not including any sulfate?

I’m just using those numbers as an example. They don’t really mean anything. I’m just wondering if I meed to add the total salt content to the wort (2.5 gal) or does it need to be added to final volume (5 gal). Like if I double the salt concentration in the wort and then dilute it afterwards is it going to affect the beer?

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'm confused by the questions...multiple people asking how much to add. Bru'n Water gives you all that. Exactly how much to add to the mash and sparge. It really makes it a no-brainer.

 

[beerlover77]

Math is hard and I don't like it!!!!!
I have found that there are online calculators for everything:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/

 

[MoonBrewer]

Toobly, I think the point is to use the calculators to determine the best mineral content of your mash water to achieve acceptable mash ph. Calculate additions based on mash volume and sparge volume if sparging.

After mash and boil the mineral concentration of your wort will be different (higher after boil due to evaporation, and lower after dilution if you are not boiling full volume)

If you want to achieve even higher levels in the finished beer you can add additional salts to the boil.

 

[beerlover77]

Target your water profile and make the water you are going to brew/mash/sparge with
Some of the salts help to raise or lower PH. Others just interact with hops etc and have nothing to do with the mash. I simply figure out total water/salts needed for the entire brew and add them all together at the start. I suppose if you are adding certain ones to raise or lower PH you could add these with your grains in the mash tun.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

To answer the O/P question (I hope)... I only treat the mash water. I start with RO water at whatever quantity I need for mashing that recipe, including the recirculation lines, inside the HERMS coil, fluid above and blow the grain bed, grain thickness ratio, etc. In simpler terms, if the water touches the grain during mashing, it gets treated (adjusted). I use that mash water quantity to calculate how much of each chemical to add. My HLT/sparge water are not treated. I use straight RO water for those and save whatever I don't use to sparge with, for the next batch.

Hope that helps.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

For dilute solutions like wort,

ppm = (milligrams of solute) / (liters of solution)

Thanks. Thats exactly what I needed.

 

[whiskeyjack]

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/water-adjustment

 

[Transamguy77]

OP I just started having to mess with salts and I use brewersfriend witch is super simple and they want the TOTAL amount of water, and when I was in my LHBS they also said the same thing.

Now my last batch was just a 5 gallon BIAB simple pale ale so I just added all my salts to the mash water but my next batch will be a 10 gallon batch and I'll need to split the salts up between my mash and sparge. Hope this is the info you were looking for.