# Brewing Salt Additions



## 3G (21/5/09)

I have read Noonans, Palmers and various other books and searched on line a fair amout as well, but am still not 100% sure on the entire process of making water additions.

I understand the mash PH is important and also various additios effect the flavour eg malty, hoppy flavours.

If emulation a regions brewing water i use promash and work out mash additions and sparge additions.

I have been adding the mash additions to the mash tun and getting correct mash PH each time, with the addition based on the amount of mash liquor.

When it comes to the sparge water i am considering just using straight rain water (and changing the PH to 7 or 6.5 with acid if required). I dont want to add the salts to the HLT as some are just going to fall straight to the bottom and not make their way into the kettle. As i understand as long as the sparge water is PH6-7 the mash will be ok.

Do i then add the remaining additions to the kettle? I know PH isnt such and issue now but i still want the salts which alter the flavour of the beer to be in correct amounts.

Am i way out ?

Cheers


----------



## newguy (21/5/09)

If you're trying to 100% emulate a style from a certain place, you'll have to use that same water profile throughout the brewing process. That means your initial infusion and your sparge water will have to have the correct mineral content. You can add acid to the water to bring the pH into the correct range as well.

If you use mineral-matched water for the first infusion but not for the sparge, you're defeating the purpose of matching minerals in the first place because a lot of things happen in the mash.


----------



## 3G (21/5/09)

I am concerned about the less soluble addition remaining in the HLT. I add the salts to half a cup of boiling water first but still see a small amount left in the HLT after the brew.


----------



## KillerRx4 (21/5/09)

3G said:


> I am concerned about the less soluble addition remaining in the HLT. I add the salts to half a cup of boiling water first but still see a small amount left in the HLT after the brew.


Add them to the kettle. Something about the salts not being soluble in water PH ~7+. But are soluble in wort PH ~5.

I heard that on brew strong water podcast. Worth a listen <_<


----------



## drsmurto (21/5/09)

3G said:


> When it comes to the sparge water i am considering just using straight rain water (and changing the PH to 7 or 6.5 with acid if required). *I dont want to add the salts to the HLT as some are just going to fall straight to the bottom and not make their way into the kettle.* As i understand as long as the sparge water is PH6-7 the mash will be ok.
> 
> Do i then add the remaining additions to the kettle? I know PH isnt such and issue now but i still want the salts which alter the flavour of the beer to be in correct amounts.
> 
> ...



Why adjust the pH of your water when its the pH of your mash thats important?

Have you taken pH readings of your mash? If so, results?

Ok, so this bit annoys me but purely from a chemistry nerds point of view. All of your 'brewing salts' will dissolve in water apart from CaCO3 (chalk) which wont dissolve until the pH drops below ~6 which is why brewing books recommend adding it to the mash tun. So adding them to your HLT minus CaCO3 means they WILL get to your kettle VIA your mash tun. Unless your salts look like big rocks but thats a whole other chemistry lecture.....

Nerdy lecture over....

I use rainwater now as i switched the house over. I prepare my brewing water the day before by adding the required salts to fermenters of rainwater. Once the salts are dissolved i then put the required amount of water for mash in into my HLT and set it to heat up by the next morning. If i am adding CaCO3 then that goes into the mash tun along with the grain.

Palmer has a nice intro into water additions which you have read.

If you want to take a step back then i suggest using Adelaide tap water and adjusting the Ca, SO4 and CO3 levels depending on what you are brewing. 

The simplistic approach is 
CaSO4 for hoppy beers
CaCl2 for malty beers
CaCO3 for dark beers

Use Palmers guide to what ppm you should be aiming for each of the brewing ions.

Hope that (minus my lecture) helps you a bit. 

Cheers
DrSmurto


----------



## 3G (21/5/09)

DrSmurto said:


> Why adjust the pH of your water when its the pH of your mash thats important?
> 
> Have you taken pH readings of your mash? If so, results?
> 
> ...



Thanks DrSmurto,

I actually was after a lecture, that is why i asked for help by someone with a greater knowledge of chemistry.

So to summise, i can make my water additions excluding the chalk to the entire amount of rainwater for the brew.

The chalk can go into the mash tun and kettle seperate. Mash PH has been good when making additions, it was the small amount of chalk left in the HLT that was concerning me


Cheers 

Gregg


----------



## drsmurto (21/5/09)

Bingo!

And just out of interest what additions have you been making so far? What was the end result as far as taste goes?


----------



## 3G (21/5/09)

DrSmurto said:


> Bingo!
> 
> And just out of interest what additions have you been making so far? What was the end result as far as taste goes?




I dont have promash with me at work but i have made a pilsner (the .001 accurate scales were reqd for such small additions which prob werent required) a Vienna, a Belgium dark strong, ESB and weizen. I chose to emulate the brewing regions(approx) water for each and used promash. 
The resuls were excellent. All the beers were in balance. Im sure doing the water additions at least made me think the beers we better than previous attemps with mains water. :lol:


----------

