Water Additions

[alooper86]

I am using Bru n Water and have been adding the sparse additions into the boil kettle including the lactic acid if needed. When creating my recipe I have simply been using the pre boil volume as the “sparge” volume to treat. Is this an accurate way of adding the water additions? Also, is adding lactic acid to the boil ok? I do check the pH often and all readings have been falling within target.

 

[chickypad]

Adding acid to the sparge is usually done to bring down the pH and prevent tannin extraction during sparging, so you should add it to the actual sparge water not the kettle. If the minerals are mainly to get the profile correct for flavor then adding to the kettle should be fine. The pre boil volume is not the sparge volume, first runnings are in there too. Sounds like you're not calculating that right.

 

[alooper86]

Adding acid to the sparge is usually done to bring down the pH and prevent tannin extraction during sparging, so you should add it to the actual sparge water not the kettle. If the minerals are mainly to get the profile correct for flavor then adding to the kettle should be fine. The pre boil volume is not the sparge volume, first runnings are in there too. Sounds like you're not calculating that right.

I completely understand adding the acid to the sparge to bring that water’s pH down but what I’m not following is why I couldn’t use my pre boil volume for the “sparge” calculation if I’m adding those minerals to the actual boil kettle. In the recipe I am doing this for I have 13.36 boil size with a sparge volume of 9.46. I also do a continuous recirculating with my mash.

 

[chickypad]

You've already input your mash volume and you're adding minerals to the mash water, right? If you then enter 13.36 instead of 9.46 as your sparge volume then you are counting the mash first runnings twice (which already have their mineral addition), and the software will overestimate the total additions you need to add for the profile you are targeting because it thinks you're using more water than you actually are. It's fine if you want to add the minerals directly to the boil kettle but I don't understand why you want to calculate it using the wrong volume. Unless you're just saying you are telling it your total finished volume and going by that without any separate mash additions - I don't actually use Bru'n water but most programs I've seen separate mash and sparge.

 

[alooper86]

Ok that’s starting to make sense with the first runnings and the mineral additions that they already have. Thanks for the clarification

 

[mabrungard]

If your water source has much alkalinity, you really do need to add the prescribed acid addition to the sparging water to help reduce the potential for tannin and silicate extraction. Don't add it to the kettle. Same thing goes for mashing water additions...add them to the mashing water since it affects pH.