When adding pickling lime to the mash, do you add this just like any other mineral addition? I am confused because on Bru'n Water it states that it raises the PH to 11 causing other minerals to fall out then you take the water physically off the minerals that fall out. At least that's how I read it. So if I add Calcium Chloride, is adding pickling lime just going to make the Calcium fall out of the solution then? Or is this not the way it works?
Confusion on how to use pickling lime
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GotPushrods
Well-Known Member
That just means don't add it to the water prior to mashing.
Water is a fairly weak buffer and the pH will rise very quickly with only small amounts. The mash is buffered much more strongly and the pH will only rise a small amount. You can add other minerals to your strike water, but save the pickling lime for the mash itself, and only if you've verified with the pH meter that you need it. At least half the time a spreadsheet model tells you it is needed.... it won't be.
Water is a fairly weak buffer and the pH will rise very quickly with only small amounts. The mash is buffered much more strongly and the pH will only rise a small amount. You can add other minerals to your strike water, but save the pickling lime for the mash itself, and only if you've verified with the pH meter that you need it. At least half the time a spreadsheet model tells you it is needed.... it won't be.
anico4704
Well-Known Member
Is it ok to add all the other salt (Calcium Chloride, Epsom Salt, Gypsum, Baking Soda) To the water before you mash in? I usually dissolve all of the salts into the mash water the night before.
Yes, its fine to add those salts to the water early. Reserving the lime addition until the grain is doughed in is a wise move to avoid pushing the water pH too high and causing calcium precipitation. Of course, you will only be adding lime to water that has too little alkalinity to match the acidity of the grist. If you have a pH meter or reliable strips, you can also use that delayed lime addition to verify that the mash pH is lower than you want before adding all or a portion of the calculated lime dose. Every time that Bru'n Water has indicated to me that a lime dose was needed, the meter has confirmed that it was needed. I start with RO water, so my water quality is very constant.
By the way, lime is not the only choice for adding alkalinity. Baking soda is a good alternative if your starting water has low sodium content. Remember that you are only adding it to the mash, so the total sodium content will be diluted by the sparging water. The supporter's version of Bru'n Water has that calculation built in.
Adding lime to the mash itself is advantageous in that you can do it as a means of adjusting the mash pH in the mash itself. IOW, if you find the mash pH is low, you add some Ca(OH)2, stir thoroughly, wait a couple of minutes and check pH again. If pH is still to low, add some more and repeat the process. Adding it to the mash is disadvantageous in that thorough mixing is difficult, especially in a thick mash, and time consuming. From this POV it is better to add it to the mash water. Whether this will result in precipitation depends on whether there is any bicarbonate in the water and how much you add. If the water contains bicarbonate in sufficient quantity and the pH goes high enough then you will drop calcium carbonate thus reducing the alkalinity, which is what you are striving to achieve by addition of the lime to begin with. But water with some alkalinity will resist pH increase because the bicarbonate provides buffering (resistance to pH change).
If the water contains magnesium and enough lime is added to raise the pH to 11 the magnesium will precipitate out as magnesium hydroxide. This is the first step in 'split treatment' softening of water an appreciable part of whose hardness is magnesium hardness. The magnesium will redissolve readily when the grist is added and the pH reduces to mash pH. That is not the case with precipitated calcium carbonate. That takes a long time to dissolve.
No, if you are making the additions to low ion (RO or DI) water as such water contains bicarbonate (nor magnesium).
It's probably worth noting that if you use lime to supply alkalinity you are deviating from 'natural' brewing as in natural brewing alkalinity is supplied exclusively by bicarbonate ion and the bicarbonate is usually paired with calcium and magnesium. To get calcium and magnesium bicarbonate into a synthetic water prepared from RO/DI involves the use of carbon dioxide gas in imitation of the way that nature gets these 'salts' into water. This can be done but one of a several elaborate, time consuming processes must be carried out at the completion of which, as soon as the water is placed in the HLT, the bicarbonate/carbonate often precipitates right back out. Water tends to naturally decarbonate itself in the brewing process which implies that if you have to add a lot of alkali to a mash you are probably using more dark malts than the brewers who created the style are likely to have used. OTOH as home brewers love to experiment that may be exactly what you have in mind.
Another thing worth noting is that lime is not as effective as the stoichimetry would suggest. This is because some of the dissociated hydroxyl ions are immediately neutralized by hydrogen ions released when the dissociated calcium ion reacts with malt phosphate. You can read more about this at
http://www.wetnewf.org/pdfs/chalk.html if you are interested.
