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bren2426

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Ok here is the question. I am making a Belgian style beer and wanting to use a Belgian water profile. I am going to use distilled water then add what I need to get the desired water. Now this is AG so do I add the salts and stuff to the mash tun on top of the grains, do I stir it. Would appreciate all comments. Thanks.


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I add salts to my mash water. I pour my mash water into the mash tun, which in my case is a cooler, add salts,stir...then add grains and stir some more.
 
I would calc. total volume of water needed, add salts to that volume of water and then mash and sparge with that water.
 
I use ro water so I just add salts to my mash water and that's it. there's no need to add salt to sparge water when using ro or distilled water
 
I use ro water so I just add salts to my mash water and that's it. there's no need to add salt to sparge water when using ro or distilled water

I'm a noob too... but I disagree a bit. If you just add salts to the mash, and then sparge with ro or distilled, I would think your final concentration of salts would be too low...

Again... being respectful, I just want to learn how to make great beer! :)
 
One of the main reason for adding salts to sparge water is to control the alkalinity. Ro and distilled are low alkalinity waters and thous don't need salts but its ok to add them. you could also just add the sparge salt your wort.
 
I'm a noob too... but I disagree a bit. If you just add salts to the mash, and then sparge with ro or distilled, I would think your final concentration of salts would be too low...

Again... being respectful, I just want to learn how to make great beer! :)

instead of adding my salt additions to the sparge water, I just add them to the Kettle while it's heating to boil. I do adjust the ph of my sprge water though. Also to add an important note here, you really need a water report to know what your working with.
 
Thanks for the info. I plan on using distilled water and adding salts to make a Belgian style so the water report I shouldn't need for distilled. I was just wondering because my lhbs said that I just add salts in top of grain and don't have to stir or anything.


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Go easy on the salts, they’re optional. I recently made an English pale with 100% RO. I tried adding CaCl to the glass, it didn’t do much. I tried gypsum, I didn’t care for the sulfate. Interestingly, a little sea salt rounded out the malt sweetness.

I liked the RO batch, it seemed brighter than my acid adjusted tapwater, but a little thinner. PH was the same on both batches.

I mentioned this to a pro brewer that uses RO and he was not surprised. It was pretty loud and I didn’t quite get everything he said, but I got the idea they use little or no salts, depending on style.
 
To put it simply, you wanna make your water additions before you heat the water, and you wanna split them between both your mash and sparge water.
 
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