Bru'n Water why to use the automatic add Calcium and Gypsum Checkbox?

[anico4704]

I am confused when you are using pickling lime why would you want to or not want to check the checkbox in Bru'n water to automatically add Gypsum and Calcium Chloride to sparge water to keep the ratio of Sulfate/Chloride in tact in the sparge water? Am I not just concerned with the final salt amounts after the mash? I was going to not check that checkbox and make sure my numbers come out to the style I am going for. Is this not correct?

 

[thadass]

From the guy who makes the dang thing!:

I feel that mashing and sparging water should generally be treated the same. The only difference is the amount of alkalinity in each water. The alkalinity in the mashing water should be keyed to the needs of the grist, while the sparging water should always have low alkalinity. In those cases where the mash water alkalinity had to be higher, I typically use pickling lime. The lime adds calcium to the mash. To achieve a similar calcium concentration in the sparging water, you would have to bump up the additions of calcium chloride and gypsum. Bru'n Water has the option of automatically adding those 2 minerals to make up for the calcium that was included in the mash water but is not allowed in the sparge water since it would increase the sparging water alkalinity. That feature increases the calcium chloride and gypsum in proportion to the mash water chemistry to keep the sulfate/chloride ratio the same in the sparging water.

So I believe you are correct on the intended function of this feature, but I do not know if it would be any better to _not_ select it in regards to style adherence. I, personally, use it and have good results.

 

[anico4704]

So does the Calcium from the pickling lime carry over to the final product? I would imagine yes, I am missing something here with that checkbox and if it just there to make it easier to hit the final concentrations or if you can not check it and manually add salts to reach the final numbers. I normally use it as well but I find it difficult at times as it's auto adjusting the salts so it's hard to tweak just a couple things.