Bru'n Water - Sparge Mineral Additions into BK for EHERMS setup.

[Dean623]

Looking for advice form others on how to properly calculate the sparge mineral addition on the water adjustment sheet in order to balance the overall profile.
I do not add the minerals to the sparge water in the HLT, but add it directly to the BK as my HLT water is more than I need due to my EHERMS.

For example, I have been calculating the mineral addition for the sparge going into BK as:
8 gal (strike water in MT) - 3 gal (water absorbed by grain in MT) = 5 gal (from MT into BK)
12 gal (final boil volume) - 5 gal (from MT into BK) = 7 gal (sparge water)
(Keep in mind the actual sparge volume is higher due to boil off, but for the mineral addition I am only considering the final boil volume since the minerals stay behind.)

So, 7 gal is what I use on the water adjustment sheet for the sparge water and adjust the minerals additions based off that.

The above assumes that the 3 gal of water absorbed by the grain in the MT also keeps the minerals proportionally.

Or should it be that all the minerals leave the grain while sparging and as a result end up in the boil kettle?
Example:
12 gal (final boil volume) - 8 gal (MT) = 4 gallons (sparge water)
The sparge mineral addition into the BK based off of 4 gallons entered on water adjustment sheet.

I guess for me the fundamental question is: Are the minerals absorbed by the grain in the MT or not?

 

[mabrungard]

Some of the ions can be adsorbed or precipitated in the mash, but its not a big deal. With respect to the "Flavor" ions, they are generally not reduced in the mash since they are highly soluble and generally don't complexes in the mash or wort.

Adding the sparging mineral additions to the kettle is OK. I calculate them on the basis of the actual water used and not the post boil volume since I purposely target a low (~8%) evaporation loss and that is not enough to worry about. If you boil off a lot more than that, you might be correct in using the lesser amount. However, you should reconsider your boil off losses since its not only wasting energy, it can damage beer.

 

[RocketBrewer]

I also have a HERMS that I need a larger volume of water than what ends up in the beer. My HLT is large enough to hold all the water I need, so for simplicity sake, I treat all of it the night before I brew. I use Bru'n Water (thanks Martin!) and just calculate the mineral additions (except for ones not recommended for sparge water) for the entire volume needed in my HLT. I calculate everything for my desired profile, and then simply temporarily change the mash volume on the water adjustment page to the entire volume I need (mash, sparge, and extra amount for HEX) to give me the entire mineral addition amounts. Hope this makes some sense, and may not work for you if the HLT isn't big enough for the entire volume up front.

 

[Dean623]

Some of the ions can be adsorbed or precipitated in the mash, but its not a big deal. With respect to the "Flavor" ions, they are generally not reduced in the mash since they are highly soluble and generally don't complexes in the mash or wort.

Adding the sparging mineral additions to the kettle is OK. I calculate them on the basis of the actual water used and not the post boil volume since I purposely target a low (~8%) evaporation loss and that is not enough to worry about. If you boil off a lot more than that, you might be correct in using the lesser amount. However, you should reconsider your boil off losses since its not only wasting energy, it can damage beer.

Martin, Thank you for the reply. I can see there is not an easy answer for this as some ions stay in the mash and some do not.
As far as the two cells on the water adjustment sheet (Mash and Sparge)... Do you think I should not consider that the minerals are absorbed in the mash and just put the actual water used at each step for the calculations?
Also, I did not understand what you meant about damaging beer with respect to only considering my final boil volume in my sparge mineral addition to the BK.
The point I was trying to make was that since there is boil off of about 1.25 gallons... I don't consider that extra water in my mineral adjustment as if I were to do that the concentration of minerals would be higher at my final boil volume. If I have misunderstood please advise.

Also, Do you think in the end it would just be easier just to treat the entire 20 gallons in my HLT for a specific style? I was concerned about doing this as I have understood that during sparging this could have a negative effect.

 

[Dean623]

I also have a HERMS that I need a larger volume of water than what ends up in the beer. My HLT is large enough to hold all the water I need, so for simplicity sake, I treat all of it the night before I brew. I use Bru'n Water (thanks Martin!) and just calculate the mineral additions (except for ones not recommended for sparge water) for the entire volume needed in my HLT. I calculate everything for my desired profile, and then simply temporarily change the mash volume on the water adjustment page to the entire volume I need (mash, sparge, and extra amount for HEX) to give me the entire mineral addition amounts. Hope this makes some sense, and may not work for you if the HLT isn't big enough for the entire volume up front.

Thanks for the reply. I may look into this technique but was wondering about the impact to the sparging pH as a result.

 

[mabrungard]

The typical homebrewer creed to boil the heck out of the wort is wrong. Wort can be damaged by heating stress and that creates a compound that causes premature staling of the resulting beer. If you consume all of your beer soon after production, then you have nothing to worry about. If you're like me and it takes many months to consume a batch, then it is worthwhile to reduce heat stress on your wort and to avoid boiling off too much of the original volume. In general, if you limit your evaporation loss to something less than 10 percent, then you are OK. That minor evaporation loss also limits the concentration effect that you're worried about.

I have known brewers that routinely evaporated 15 to 25 percent and that can be problematic. Brewing really small batches (like 1 gal), make it more possible to evaporate too much.