using adjunts/salts while mashing and boiling

[Mark Kessell]

i've read some of the "how to brew" site about adding salts/chalks to alter the mineral composition of the mash water.

HOW TO BREW goes on about chalk being used to "harden" the mash water. what does that mean, and does it mean that i can use it in most brews? or am o best to keep that to dark brews only? and if so, why? do i need to do it at all?

i also understand that in some cases, the extra mineral content (of certain compounds) accentuates the flavours of the beer. but if the PH of the water is neutral, and the mash PH is between 5.2 and 5.4, why use it at all?

also, which salts etc, modify the PH of the mash?

[Mike Neilson]

Righto!!

[martin w]

actually,we use salt in food to enhance flavour,it tastes salty when you've used too much,unless of course its intended to be salty.without it a lot of food wood be bland and boring

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah but remember how much salt 23L of seawater has in it compared to good beer liquour, the salt water probably only has 1 teaspoon if that in it!! try work your figures on that!!

[martin w]

thats sort of my point, (certain) brewing salts are there to enhance flavour rather than slam an undesirable flavour in your face

[Pilgrim]

Gee Mike,

Did you swallow an encyclopedia :-)

Good write-up, I'll save it to refer to. Perhaps it should be in the Library ;-)

[denimglen]

Good write-up, I'll save it to refer to. Perhaps it should be in the Library ;-)

Have added link to original article in the library.

[Reviled]

Man just had a read through this whole page and my head hurts... Im starting to get it, but still, so much reading to be done I guess :o(

[martin w]

i hadn't considered water adjustments until i watched the videos in this link,they made the whole thing seem a lot more acheivable

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/water-modification-videos-ths-spre...

[Reviled]

Cheers mate will have a watch of that later! Its something ive been putting off for ages, but I think its time I figured it out...

[Tony]

I used some salts to Burtonise my mash, in my last ESB. I feel it really made a difference to the hop character of the beer. It was a similar recipe to a previous one, so I was able to compare it quite well. It was my first experiment with salts. Better suited to English style ales and the like. But hey, thats why we home brewers are cutting edge, because we aren't affraid to experiment, so don't hold back, IMHO

[studio1]

OK, so I've been listening to the waterdanza podcasts (2 down so far) and am planning to make some water adjustments for a (42L) bitter I am going to make. I want the emphasis on Bitter in the Chloride/Sulphate Ratio and My Calcium around 100ppm. I have used the RA spreadsheet and calculated salts to add for 16L of mash for the profile I'm looking at.

Problem is I can't work out what I am to do with the rest of the sparge water. It seems that some folk add the additional salts into the kettle. Do you work this out on preboil volume less the mash volume (less grain absorbed water) or the post boil volume? is there a calculator to assist with this?

[denimglen]

Think of it this way - if you're brewing an Irish Stout you (may) want to emulate Dublin's water. You need to adjust your water as if Dublin water was coming out of your tap. So every drop of water that goes into the beer (whether absorbed by the grain or boiled off) is 'Dublin Water'.

You're using beersmith aye?

This is how I use it, seems like a bit of a piss around but works really well.

1) Figure out the water profile in the RA calculator and note the weights of salts per volume of water to get the desired profile.

2) In beersmith go to 'water profile' -> 'new water' and fill out all the fields in there and save it (NB: the pH field near the top doesn't matter - just leave it as-is).

3) Go to the recipe creator and make your recipe and fill out everything completely except the water adjustment side of things.

4) Click 'Preview Brewsheet' and note down your mash-in water volume and your sparge water volume.

5) Click out of the preview window (back to the recipe editor)

6) Click the 'Add Water' button on the right and select the water profile you created before, in the volume down the bottom type in your sparge water volume. It should ask you if you want to add the mineral additions - click yes.

7) For all the mineral additions that are now in your recipe double click them and change them from 'Use in - mash' to 'Use in - boil'.

8) Redo step 6 but this time use your mash water volume.

Tada - now when you print out your brewsheet all your mineral additions are in the right places.

Hope that helps bro.