I read a great article by Martin Brungaard about calicum and magnesium in brewing, from a 2015 Zymurgy. The article says the following:
-You want a Mg:Ca ratio of 1.8. That is, almost twice the Mg as Ca.
-Keep Mg under 40ppm.
-The malt itself adds enough Ca and Mg for your minimum needs.
How do I treat my water with this information?! My questions are:
-If I want twice the Mg as Ca and I need to keep my Mg under 40ppm, doesn't that mean my Ca should never go above 22ppm?
-If my malt is adding these ions, how do I have any idea how much it is adding to know my finished beer ion profile?
-Why is there a minimum at all for Mg? If I have a 5-gal session beer batch with 5lbs of malt, won't that be adding half the Mg as a batch with 10lb, therefor changing how much Mg my strike water can have?
-I guess I'm confused about the difference between brewing water (ie. the strike and sparge water) and the wort itself. I've used the Bru'n Water program for a long time, which I love, but I'm wondering if it should take into account malt-provided ions? I may set my Mg to 30ppm in the program but once I dough in that just went to 100ppm, right?
I feel like the article was full of great information but I'm left with more questions than answers.
Thanks!
-You want a Mg:Ca ratio of 1.8. That is, almost twice the Mg as Ca.
-Keep Mg under 40ppm.
-The malt itself adds enough Ca and Mg for your minimum needs.
How do I treat my water with this information?! My questions are:
-If I want twice the Mg as Ca and I need to keep my Mg under 40ppm, doesn't that mean my Ca should never go above 22ppm?
-If my malt is adding these ions, how do I have any idea how much it is adding to know my finished beer ion profile?
-Why is there a minimum at all for Mg? If I have a 5-gal session beer batch with 5lbs of malt, won't that be adding half the Mg as a batch with 10lb, therefor changing how much Mg my strike water can have?
-I guess I'm confused about the difference between brewing water (ie. the strike and sparge water) and the wort itself. I've used the Bru'n Water program for a long time, which I love, but I'm wondering if it should take into account malt-provided ions? I may set my Mg to 30ppm in the program but once I dough in that just went to 100ppm, right?
I feel like the article was full of great information but I'm left with more questions than answers.
Thanks!