Hello everyone,
I have been a long time lurker over the last year and have absorbed tons of information regarding the wonderful world of brewing. I have been brewing on and off over the last 5 years, but have really ramped it up over the last 6 months. I have about 12 AG batches under my belt and want to dive into the world of adjusting my brew water. I have a well that has a sodium water softener attached, which has led me to the idea of building my brew water from scratch, using distilled water. I have been playing around with the various spreadsheets and reading all the threads and literature. I purchased a nice digital PH tester and all the salts along with some lactic acid if necessary. I settled on using the Bru'n water spreadsheet, but still have some questions. The plan is to brew up 5 gallons of Jamil's Robust Vanilla Porter on Saturday, and I would like to build my water for the first time. According to the Bru'n spreadsheet I should add the following:
Gypsum= 2.5g to mash 4.5 grams to sparge
Epsom= 1g to mash .9g to sparge
canning salt= .7g to mash .6g to sparge
Calcium chloride= .6g to mash 1.6 to sparge
Chalk= 2.5g to mash (i have been reading about the issues that come along with dissolving chalk without the use of CO2)
the report states that I should end up with a finished profile of:
CA 92 MG 5 NA 15 SO4 94 Cl 38 Bicarbonate 161
I used a target profile for a "balanced" brown ale as a guide to follow. The mash PH comes out to 5.2.....I was very happy with the way this spreadsheet flows!
Hoping to get some insight as to what people think (I want to prevent catastrophe lol). I am assuming that I should add the mash salts to the mash after I dough in and then add the balance of the salts to the sparge water (I have also read that people add them to the boil). I know there are many threads on this subject; however I just had to get these questions out there lol. hopefully I am not trying to fix something that's not broken. The goal is to add some essential minerals to the beer and also help control the PH throughout the mash. Thanks in advance for your help!!
I have been a long time lurker over the last year and have absorbed tons of information regarding the wonderful world of brewing. I have been brewing on and off over the last 5 years, but have really ramped it up over the last 6 months. I have about 12 AG batches under my belt and want to dive into the world of adjusting my brew water. I have a well that has a sodium water softener attached, which has led me to the idea of building my brew water from scratch, using distilled water. I have been playing around with the various spreadsheets and reading all the threads and literature. I purchased a nice digital PH tester and all the salts along with some lactic acid if necessary. I settled on using the Bru'n water spreadsheet, but still have some questions. The plan is to brew up 5 gallons of Jamil's Robust Vanilla Porter on Saturday, and I would like to build my water for the first time. According to the Bru'n spreadsheet I should add the following:
Gypsum= 2.5g to mash 4.5 grams to sparge
Epsom= 1g to mash .9g to sparge
canning salt= .7g to mash .6g to sparge
Calcium chloride= .6g to mash 1.6 to sparge
Chalk= 2.5g to mash (i have been reading about the issues that come along with dissolving chalk without the use of CO2)
the report states that I should end up with a finished profile of:
CA 92 MG 5 NA 15 SO4 94 Cl 38 Bicarbonate 161
I used a target profile for a "balanced" brown ale as a guide to follow. The mash PH comes out to 5.2.....I was very happy with the way this spreadsheet flows!
Hoping to get some insight as to what people think (I want to prevent catastrophe lol). I am assuming that I should add the mash salts to the mash after I dough in and then add the balance of the salts to the sparge water (I have also read that people add them to the boil). I know there are many threads on this subject; however I just had to get these questions out there lol. hopefully I am not trying to fix something that's not broken. The goal is to add some essential minerals to the beer and also help control the PH throughout the mash. Thanks in advance for your help!!