Sparge or kettle water adjustments

[nyer]

I use brewers friend and brew with distilled water. Since I started using brewers friend I have been making water adjustments to the mash only and my beer turns out good. I'm wondering if I should be treating my sparge water or adding anything to the kettle? Before using brewers friend I was adding gypsum to the mash and boil only with good results but I had no idea what my water profile was. Since then I moved to Florida and have crappy water so I use distilled water and build from there. I can't find anything in brewers friend that explains it.

 

[ajdelange]

If you are using RO water there is no need to treat the sparge water any differently from the mash water. Just treat it all at once.

 

[nyer]

I have the box checked for adding to the mash . So if I am using 8 gallons total and 4 in the mash, I am only adding salts to the 4 in my mash, correct? I've heard of people treating the 8 gallons first but I thought some salts didn't dissolve in plain water.

 

[mabrungard]

If you are using RO water there is no need to treat the sparge water any differently from the mash water. Just treat it all at once.

Umm, bull****! For example, mashing water for a very pale grist has to have an addition of some sort of acid, while the typically near zero alkalinity of RO requires no acid. Conversely, if mashing a dark grist, the mashing water alkalinity is likely to need to be above zero and the sparging water still doesn't need an alkalinity adjustment.

Mashing water and sparging water should be treated separately under most brewing scenarios. That will produce a better result than assuming all water needs to be treated to a single specification.

 

[mblanks2]

I treat mash and sparge water separately using Bru'n Water spreadsheet and 100% RO water.

 

[nyer]

Wonderful, now I'm more confused. I can't use bru n water for some reason with my tablet, no matter what I download it won't open. Brewers friend has a box that I can check that will allow me to add salts to the sparge or kettle also but if I'm already treating 8 gallons total like it says at the top of their page then what will I add to the sparge water? It seems as though I am adding salts for 8 gallons to 4 gallons in my mash only. I hate water adjustments, it takes the fun out of brewing.

 

[bmbigda]

I also treat separately. I calculate the amount of salts per unit 10 gallons (just for easy numbers) then proportion it to the strike water volume and sparge water volume. the sparge water salts I just add to the BK at the start of boil as I believe this only impacts post-mash things like flavor, bitterness, yeast health, etc

 

[bmbigda]

Wonderful, now I'm more confused. I can't use bru n water for some reason with my tablet, no matter what I download it won't open. Brewers friend has a box that I can check that will allow me to add salts to the sparge or kettle also but if I'm already treating 8 gallons total like it says at the top of their page then what will I add to the sparge water? It seems as though I am adding salts for 8 gallons to 4 gallons in my mash only. I hate water adjustments, it takes the fun out of brewing.

if you are just treating all of your brew day water at the start then that's another story. when I started doing this there was a fear that the salts might not fully/evenly dissolve in room temp water. I really have nothing to back that up though. There may be other reasons to do it separately that I'm forgetting.

 

[nyer]

I have been putting them all in the mash.

 

[ajdelange]

Umm, bull****! For example, mashing water for a very pale grist has to have an addition of some sort of acid, while the typically near zero alkalinity of RO requires no acid. Conversely, if mashing a dark grist, the mashing water alkalinity is likely to need to be above zero and the sparging water still doesn't need an alkalinity adjustment.

Horsefea*****! In neither case would it be necessary to treat the mash and sparge water separately. This, of course requires a properly formulated grist.

Mashing water and sparging water should be treated separately under most brewing scenarios.

Except, for example, commercial breweries that don't do it. See, for example, Kunze (who just died last week, BTW) 3.2.1.8. I don't believe I have ever found it necessary to treat sparge water separately.

That will produce a better result than assuming all water needs to be treated to a single specification.

I don't assume that. I assume that one should do what one needs to do in order to obtain the best beer and thus control (or at least check) mash, wort and fermenter pH. That doesn't include separate treatment of sparge water.

Having stated things somewhat strongly in order to draw sharp contrast it would be well for me to explain in a little more detail the philosophy behind this position.
1)It is a PITA to have to separate out and treat sparge water separately so I don't do it. When my HLT is full the water is 36" deep. I dissolve 28 grams of CaCl2 in 72 mL of water and add 36 cc to the HLT. When it is time to top off the HLT I simply add 1 cc of the solution for each inch of water I add.

2)Just because I write extensively about how to precisely calculate the amount of bottle acid one needs to add in order to hit proper mash pH doesn't mean that I use bottled acid in my brewing. I happen to think the Germans make some pretty good beer and they are forbidden to do so. Instead they get the acid from natural sources such as colored malts and sauermalz and that's where I get mine. IOW I'm a bit of a thrall to German tradition.

Now, dear reader, there is no reason why you need to adhere to the German traditions or use my trick to prepare your brewing water. In fact I'd guess that most of you are in thrall to the producers of IPAs and use phosphoric acid to set mash pH. Were I to do that I'd add enough acid to the concentrated salt mix to zero the alkalinity of the water so that the 1 cc/inch maneuver would still work. I'd then add the additional acid to move the mash to the proper pH to the mash, as commercial brewers do. But I'd put it into the water in the mash tun before I added the grains to that water.

Note that neither RO water nor tap water pre treated with enough acid to bring it to mash pH needs any further treatment for sparge.

 

[ajdelange]

I hate water adjustments, it takes the fun out of brewing.

I can't relieve you of the necessity to do some water treatment but I can tell you how to minimize it. Follow the Primer. Obtain an RO system. Add 2.5 grams CaCl2 per 5 gallons and gypsum to taste if you like. Now just be sure that you have a few % sauermalz in your grist. You won't need to do anything further to your water let alone treat mash and sparge water differently. I see it as being like learning the piano. Some day you'd like to be able to play the Goldberg variations but you are better off starting with the Two Part Inventions.