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Thanks. I thought his name is Steve. Kai

you can't raise Ca without also raising another ion. But you can add Ca w/o adding Cl, SO4 or HCO3. One option is Calcum lactate, which is chalk or pickling lime dissolved in lactic acid.

I wrote about this here: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Drauflassen and it works well for me. As for yeast growth, my research has shown that 100B cells can be grown from about 70g of DME. that's less than $1 for 100B more cells. Kai

I misread your statement. I'm fine wit using the same water for mash and sparge but not fine with using the same water for all different kinds of beers. Looks like you already found the Brewer's Friend water calculator which supports mashing and sparging with 2 different water sources. Kai

If you want to play around with the effects that boiling has on your water, check out this calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/?id=XXXXXWS I already loaded your water profile and checked boiling. If you uncheck "decant water" you can also see the...

Are you using a stir plate? With a stir plate I don't think you need a 3+ L starter. Based on this calculator (http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/), which has a model based on my research I think you are fine with a ~1.5 L starter. Kai

the refractive index of water and wort are dependent on the wavelength of the light source. But the difference is small and you should not notice it. Sometimes I can see a thin rainbow at the transition between blue and white. But it doesn't create a false reading. I don't see how the...

Even if your OG was lower than expected, this is 95%+ attenuation. With simple mashing you won't get wort that fermentable, even if you add almost a pound of sugar. But you mention that it does taste dry. For $35 you can send a sample to White Labs and get a final answer. :) They'll be able...

While there is a correlation between bicarbonate and pH but it is not what you are thinking of. pH depends on water treatment that has been by your water supplier. You don't have to worry about it. Kai

That's a good base for brewing water treatment. All the ions are fairly low. For lighter beers you'll still need to add some acid. Kai

You can try lactic and phosphoric acid and see what it does to the taste. report back what you find. I'm curious of this works for you. Kai

yeast growth is more correlated to the amount of DME that you put in the starter and less correlated to the actual volume. As long as you add enough water to have about 1 part DME for 10 parts of water you'll be fine. Kai

I don't think you'll need any additional alkalinity. I predict a mash pH of 5.4 with this calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/?id=F9C6TRX I went with this recipe...

Don't use sugar to propagate yeast. It does not have the necessary nutrients for yeast growth. In particular its lacking nitrogen and trace elements like zinc. Kai

for all intents and purposes in brewing you can assume that Plato == Balling. Don't go back to sg simply because you are confused by Plato vs. Balling. This wold not eliminate the problem anyway since sg based calculations also rely on the Plato scale under the hood. A.J. has done some good...

How well did the CaSO4 dissolve? Kai

test strips are fine if they are the ColorpHast strips. Kai

Assuming this is a 5 gal batch I get a mash pH prediction of ~5.3 for 8 oz of acid malt. It's only 4% of the grist and I think you should be fine. Are you able to test mash pH? I would be interesting to see where your mash pH actually ends up given the rather large discrepancy between the...

Here is your water and a grist that makes a 10 SRM beer in the Brewer's Friend Calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/?id=Y5RLFKJ When I add only 2% acid malt I get a pH of 5.4 and with 5% I get to 5.2. But I don't think you should push it to 5.2. Kai

Boiling would help with your water but you would need to add calcium salts (calcium chloride or gypsum) to offset the calcium that is precipitated with the carbonate when the water is boiled. But what does your timeline look like? Boiling and the necessary settling of the precipitate would add...