BIAB / Two vessel brewing and PH / Salts

[Rivenin]

long story short. I have 2 kids and the normal 3 vessel brewing is becoming difficult to do while helping the wife watch the kids (1yo and 3yo) So i'm switching it up to a two vessel system (something like a Blichmann breweasy) and the brewday went just fine until i realized salts and PH Additions are going to be very different.

Also, i got a MW102 PH meter for xmas, so it changes my steps a bit more.

There are a few ways i was able to come up with to not mess with too much or add new steps. Let me know if i'm thinking incorrectly.

----- Option 1

1. Add correct (for me, 1.25qt/gal) strike water into my mash tun
2. Add salts, Mash in, test PH after a few mins and correct accordingly if needed.
3. Let rest 30 minutes to convert
4. Start recirculating with my pump for 30-60 more mins
5. Drain out to BK, add more salts if needed and start boiling.

----- Option 2

1. Use the breweasy style of brewing
1.5 mash in with half the water, wait 10 minutes and then start recirculating
2. Use BRU'n water or EZWater calculator and put 0 for sparge water and use all water in the mash area to calculate all salt / acid additions and PH predictions.

Only issues i can see with this is the buffering will be very different with the large volume of water and the calculations will be off by quite a bit. I know this will vary with the type of water usage, but is there a rule of thumb to shoot for?

I googled BIAB And PH predictions for a bit today and didn't get too far unfortunately, this is why i'm calling to you, oh knowledgeable brewing masters

 

[aamcle]

I believe your over thinking it, lets consider full volume 30 litres or so, that's the volume your treating so plug it into whatever software your use and follow the recommendations.
With two vessels and re-circulation it's a little more complicated, pump as much as you can into the mash tun whilst keeping your element covered, that's the volume you need to use for the strike temp calculation then determine the additions as above,

I you keep say 5 litres back for a sparge what I do is use the 25 litres for calculation of salt additions and just drop the alkalinity into range for the sparge water.

aamcle

 

[mabrungard]

If there is no sparging, then set the sparge water volume to zero and calculate mineral and acid additions based on the mashing water volume.

 

[Rivenin]

If there is no sparging, then set the sparge water volume to zero and calculate mineral and acid additions based on the mashing water volume.

Perfect, thank you! Had a feeling it was simple... but water science scares me... i have the water book sitting next to me at my desk, taunting me... but i haven't picked it up yet.