Water chemistry - High gravity brewing

[RickyBeers]

I'm brewing a high gravity beer (5.5 gallon after boil) that I will be diluting with distilled water to get 10.5 gallons to fill two cornys.
I use distilled water for everything and I used Brew smith to build the water profile for an american lager as if I was using a large grainfather system (I use the small 110v version) making a 10.5 gallon batch.

So... I want to make sure this converts to my high gravity process.

I attached my grainfather recipe to show you how I will be making it. Can someone take a look at the salt additions? BTW, "each" as the unit means grams... They didn't have grams as an option *SMH*

Am I good to add all the salts that I would be adding to the 5 gallons of distilled that I dilute with straight to the mash? Or do I need to break those up between the two? The sparge water expectation is different in the recipes as well.

Let me know thoughts on all this. Part of me just wants to say F-it and use the 5.2 stabilizer but I'm trying to get into water profiles. I enjoy doing high gravity brewing so I can get two kegs, I know that is the obvious challenge here.

 

[cire]

At the very least, get rid of the baking soda in both mash and sparge.

 

[RickyBeers]

At the very least, get rid of the baking soda in both mash and sparge.

Will do, how come though?

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

If you are using lactic acid to lower pH you should not need to use baking soda to raise pH.

 

[RickyBeers]

If you are using lactic acid to lower pH you should not need to use baking soda to raise pH.

Ok that makes. I can then reduce the lactic acid too. good point, thanks I'm new to this.

Am I good to add all salts at the mash instead of treating my dilution water? or do I need to treat them all different?

 

[cire]

Pilsner Malt and Flaked Corn in distilled water will likely lead to a mash pH near to 6.0. Calcium will lower pH, but the addition is small and therefore so will be any reduction. The acid addition will lower pH and so help. No pale beer sparge liquor will likely need added alkalinity.

 

[marc1]

If you're new to water adjustment, you might also want to ditch the Epsom salt. Mg isn't needed, and too much can have a negative impact on flavor. Use more gypsum if you want the sulfate.

 

[RickyBeers]

If you're new to water adjustment, you might also want to ditch the Epsom salt. Mg isn't needed, and too much can have a negative impact on flavor. Use more gypsum if you want the sulfate.

Awesome. I appreciate the advice!

Also, Cire said - No pale beer sparge liquor will likely need added alkalinity.

I still was planning on treating sparge water. I really still don't understand if I can treat ALL my water salts for a 10.5 gallon batch within my mash and then at the end just dillute with the distilled water... Not sure if I'm making sense?

 

[marc1]

Awesome. I appreciate the advice!

Also, Cire said - No pale beer sparge liquor will likely need added alkalinity.

I still was planning on treating sparge water. I really still don't understand if I can treat ALL my water salts for a 10.5 gallon batch within my mash and then at the end just dillute with the distilled water... Not sure if I'm making sense?

Yes, I agree with Cire that the baking soda is at odds with everything else, and should certainly not be in sparge water.

You can add your mineralization to only the mash and then sparge and dilute with distilled.

It might make a slightly different beer than if you used the same water for everything (there's no good predictor of what comes out of the mash, the malt has its own contributions to mineralization) but it's a fine starting place. A lot of the water adjustment is personal preference, and you are going to have to trial it on your process.

 

[RickyBeers]

Yes, I agree with Cire that the baking soda is at odds with everything else, and should certainly not be in sparge water.

You can add your mineralization to only the mash and then sparge and dilute with distilled.

It might make a slightly different beer than if you used the same water for everything (there's no good predictor of what comes out of the mash, the malt has its own contributions to mineralization) but it's a fine starting place. A lot of the water adjustment is personal preference, and you are going to have to trial it on your process.

I really love homebrewtalk
Thank you all so much for the advice!