Where to find single mineral brewing salts?

[westchesterBrewer]

I am researching building up my brewing water by taking distilled water and adding my salts to hit my exact water profiles. Let's take this profile for example:

Amber malty:
Ca 59
Mg 6
Na 14
SO4 50
Cl 45
HCO3 76

Where do I find each of these minerals? I see that I can take Epsom salt to get both my Sulfate(SO4) and Magnesium(Mg), but Epsom salt isn't in the correct proportions as listed above. Same with Calcium Chloride. Its proportions of Calcium:Chloride do not match the above values.

Is it possible to buy each of these minerals straight up? Or am I going about this all wrong?

 

[JonM]

You're on the right track. Do you use Bru'n Water or similar programs? They let you plug in combinations of calcium chloride, epsom salts, etc. to get the right proportions.

Instead of magnesium sulfate, try adding calcium sulfate and reducing the calcium chloride.

 

[agrazela]

Wait, are you asking if , for example, you can buy straight calcium, or straight chloride?

It don't work that way. A salt has to have a cation (like Ca++) and an anion (like Cl-, or in that case 2 Cl-).

As said above, Bru'nWater is a good resource; you're likely not going to hit a profile exactly with commonly available salts, but you can get pretty close.

 

[judsonp]

Don't try to add HCO3.

You adjust the chemistry by adding salts, which provide two ions at once. Pick a combination of salts so that you get pretty close.

I think SO4 and Cl are the key ones (and perhaps Na if you're starting with very soft water), which means that you can just use gypsum (CaSO4) and calcium chloride (CaCl2) to get the right SO4 and Cl numbers. (If you're starting with very soft water, you may want to sub some gypsum with epsom salt, MgSO4, to get Mg in there.) As long as the Ca is something sane, you're set.

 

[pdietert]

Sorry but you will probably need this:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistry101/

 

[Yooper]

You're on the right track. Do you use Bru'n Water or similar programs? They let you plug in combinations of calcium chloride, epsom salts, etc. to get the right proportions.

Instead of magnesium sulfate, try adding calcium sulfate and reducing the calcium chloride.

Agreed.

I only own two salts that I use (and I brew a LOT!)- calcium chloride and gypsum (calcium sulfate). In order to hit the proper mash pH, you'll probably need some acid so using lactic acid or phosphoric acid is important. (I prefer phosphoric, as it has no flavor impact like lactic acid can in a larger amount).

With those three items, you can be assured that you'll be fine. When you look at those profiles, close enough is close enough and the actual numbers don't really matter all that much. In the profile you posted, you could easily get the same flavor results with

Ca 40-100
Mg 0-30
Na 0-30
SO4 0-50
Cl 30-90
HCO3 0-100 (or whatever gives a mash pH of 5.3-5.5 at room temperature).

Mash pH is important, but the salts are just like adding seasoning to food- sure there is some good there with the calcium for yeast health- but over all it's for flavor. There is a lot of leeway in that.