@Peebee it sounds like the issue you are trying to figure out is that since ppm is a concentration, it doesn't say anything about how much absolute minerals there are in the mash. So people mashing with the same ppm but at different thicknesses are mashing with different absolute amounts of minerals?
I see your vinegar analogy above... wouldn't it make the most sense to know the ppm and the mash thickness? That tells you what is needed to replicate that portion of the recipe. So 75ppm Ca in the mash at a water to grist ratio of 2qt/lb (eg, to use your example, instead of 5% vinegar for your chips, or 30mL of vinegar for your chips [because we don't know how many chips you have, that could be a lot or a little], say 5mL of 5% vinegar per 30g of chips).
The calculator I use has inputs for mash and sparge mineral additions, and then provides an overall mineralization that combines both. We know that some minerals may be lost, and some may be added from the grain, but this provides a way to track the things that we can control so that we can try to repeat recipes. If you keep your process consistent, then you should be able to more reliably replicate your own beers.
I'm trying to understand what your goal is - standardizing recipes? Experienced brewers know that when they see a basic recipe from someone else, they have to adapt it to their own system/process, and it it unlikely to come out exactly the same as the original done on a different system/process.
I see your vinegar analogy above... wouldn't it make the most sense to know the ppm and the mash thickness? That tells you what is needed to replicate that portion of the recipe. So 75ppm Ca in the mash at a water to grist ratio of 2qt/lb (eg, to use your example, instead of 5% vinegar for your chips, or 30mL of vinegar for your chips [because we don't know how many chips you have, that could be a lot or a little], say 5mL of 5% vinegar per 30g of chips).
The calculator I use has inputs for mash and sparge mineral additions, and then provides an overall mineralization that combines both. We know that some minerals may be lost, and some may be added from the grain, but this provides a way to track the things that we can control so that we can try to repeat recipes. If you keep your process consistent, then you should be able to more reliably replicate your own beers.
I'm trying to understand what your goal is - standardizing recipes? Experienced brewers know that when they see a basic recipe from someone else, they have to adapt it to their own system/process, and it it unlikely to come out exactly the same as the original done on a different system/process.
