Adjusting mash water with Bru'n Water

[DrBeerOrBeerDoctor?]

Okay, so usually I'm lazy and don't adjust my mash water, but I'm brewing a blonde ale and my local water is too hard for that.

My quick question is on how to use the "Total Water Additions" section in the Water Adjustment tab in Bru'n Water. I want to add 5 gallons total of modified water to my grain for the mash. However, I typically make at least 6 gallons of water for the mash, just to make sure that I have enough properly adjusted water (in case I spill some, lose too much in my hoses, etc). In this case if I want to build my correct profile using RO water with additions, what water volume do I use in the "Mash Volume" section? Do I use the 5 gallon amount that I will actually add to the grain, or 6 gallons of water (since I like to make a little extra)? If I make extra how do I account for this when adding my salts and acid? Will this still get me to the same target pH in the mash? Can I do the same thing if I want to make extra sparge water? I'm confused...

 

[scrap iron]

I would use the 6 gals figure so the minerals and acid will be the correct amount for your total water volumes. Same for the sparge.

 

[DrBeerOrBeerDoctor?]

I would use the 6 gals figure so the minerals and acid will be the correct amount for your total water volumes. Same for the sparge.

Okay, thanks. I thought it might be that simple, but I wanted to be sure. Messing with water is new for me, and I'm trying to get it right the first time. So, hopefully all goes well! Cheers.

 

[mabrungard]

You have a curious case there. To have a decent chance of producing the targeted pH, you HAVE to enter the actual mashing water volume that will be added to the mash. You can’t include that ‘extra’ unused water volume or it will throw everything off.

To get around this issue, enter the actual mashing water volume and determine the salt and acid additions needed to produce the desired pH and ion concentrations. With those salt and acid settings, just bump up the mashing water volume up to include your ‘extra’ volume and all the salt and acid additions will be properly calculated for that larger volume.

Do remember that the sparging water quality is likely to be somewhat different than the mashing water quality.