Where to add salts?

[JCasey1992]

I just received a grainfather for the holidays. I am super excited to brew with it but with this being a new system, I am forced to relearn a few things. as a former biab brewer i always added my salt additions to the mash because i did not sparge. However, with the grainfather requiring a sparge, do I need to add a portion of the salts to that water or can I throw it all in the mash?

As an example, I am brewing a pale from 100% RO water later on and plan on treating my water with the following salts:

6.5 g Gypsum
2.5 g Epsom Salt
1 g Canning Salt
2.3 g Calcium Chloride

I calculated my additions off of the brewersfriend.com calculator. Does this all go in the mash or does a portion of this go into the sparge water? If I need to treat my sparge water, how do I decide on how much to add?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Cheers,
Casey

 

[Yooper]

You can put all your salts in the mash- if your mash pH is ok. Check that out on the calculator you're using to make sure your mash pH is good.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

You can make mineral additions either as all to the strike water (mash) or fractionally to both the strike and sparge waters.

I presume that you combined (totalled) the strike and sparge water and then sought out targets for your minerals in Brewers Friend using the total.

 

[ba-brewer]

Not a grainfather user but I do batch sparging. I usually put mineral/salts in both the mash and sparge water. Sometime I will put them all in the mash or move some to the boil in order to meet my ph target.

I use bru n water and it makes it easy to see where is the best place to add them.

 

[cactusgarrett]

In my opinion, salts in the sparge water aren't useful as long as your sparge water pH is in line. If I'm targeting a specific water profile, I'll add salts to the mash to ensure a proper mash pH, then add salts to the boil to make up the difference to make the total water hit the target profile. I know this likely isn't accurate, but it makes logical sense to me; at least more sense than having salts run thru the mash via sparge water.

 

[Morrey]

There are for sure many ways to skin the cat. I adjust/balance my mash strike water since this sets the stage for successful mash conversion. After mashing is said and done, rinsing the sugars from the grain bed is all I'm after while sparging, so I personally don't use salts then.

Let me add that I BIAB and use almost full volume strike water when mashing - but save 1/2G of volume for rinse sparging when done mashing. It's entirely possible that your new Grainfather will force you to vary your thinking beyond BIAB, but I know for sure lots of folks make one adjustment for the mash and don't fret over the sparge.

 

[bushizell]

There are for sure many ways to skin the cat. I adjust/balance my mash strike water since this sets the stage for successful mash conversion. After mashing is said and done, rinsing the sugars from the grain bed is all I'm after while sparging, so I personally don't use salts then.

Let me add that I BIAB and use almost full volume strike water when mashing - but save 1/2G of volume for rinse sparging when done mashing. It's entirely possible that your new Grainfather will force you to vary your thinking beyond BIAB, but I know for sure lots of folks make one adjustment for the mash and don't fret over the sparge.

I do something very similar, but do you think the ph of the sparge water matters? I've read varying ideas on this. My tap water is 8.4 ph, and I've read that 6 ph is the right amount for sparge. I guess my question is, have you tasted any astringent flavors etc. from not adding anything to the sparge?

 

[Yooper]

I do something very similar, but do you think the ph of the sparge water matters? I've read varying ideas on this. My tap water is 8.4 ph, and I've read that 6 ph is the right amount for sparge. I guess my question is, have you tasted any astringent flavors etc. from not adding anything to the sparge?

Yes, that can happen and often does.

It’s not just the ph- it’s the alkalinity. If you have low alkalinity, like under 17 ppm, you wouldn’t have to acidity the sparge water even if the pH is over 6.

 

[bushizell]

Yes, that can happen and often does.

It’s not just the ph- it’s the alkalinity. If you have low alkalinity, like under 17 ppm, you wouldn’t have to acidity the sparge water even if the pH is over 6.

Would unsalted RO water be a good substitute for tap water then? Or would you add the calcium chloride and gypsum etc to RO water because unlike tap water, it's been stripped of the basics?

 

[Morrey]

I do BIAB with a full volume mash. The full volume of strike water is adjusted when I mash in. Since I am only using about 1/3 to 1/2 of a gallon of distilled water to "rinse" the grain bed after lautering the grain basket, I haven't focused on the need to treat this small amount of water.

I am going to boil this extra water off so it ends up being removed anyway. My biggest focus is to treat the strike water properly so I'll have good mash conversion.

If you'll have large volumes of sparge water, you may have more need for concern.

 

[Yooper]

Would unsalted RO water be a good substitute for tap water then? Or would you add the calcium chloride and gypsum etc to RO water because unlike tap water, it's been stripped of the basics?

You can use 100% RO water, but the result could be a bit bland. Using some salts, just like with cooking, provides flavor to the wort. Depending on what you’re making, you could just follow the instructions in this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/a-brewing-water-chemistry-primer.198460/