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Water additions and volume question

cristianasierra

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I'm sure there's a thread on this somewhere but I could not find it: I'm planning on replicating some brew water,

1. What volume do I use when I add the water? Pre boil volume, post boil, total volume with sparge water?  Brew Smith seems to automatically add the final volume but that doesn't seem right as the concentration would be different with loss etc and do I need to account for concentration with the boil.

2. At what point do I make the addition of salts: sparge, mash boil?

Thanks for your help,

Cristian
 
There are several directions I could go with an answer to this one, but for now; I'll give just some basics. Adding salts to your water can be done with one addition to the Total Water as defined in your recipe. I wouldn't be too concerned at this point about concentration - a simple approach is one that considers the total volume, and perhaps breaks the addition up into multiple additions throughout the brewing process.

For example; with my setup in BeerSmith, for a typical 5 gallon batch I'll start with 7.5 gallons for a 60-minute boil, or 8 gallons if I'm boiling for 90 minutes. Now that's TOTAL water. If I were to treat the whole batch from the start, that'd be fine, but lately I've been breaking it up into two additions; one in the mash, and one in the boil.

Mash salts can be tailored for hitting a specific pH which can improve conversion. Boil salts can enhance flavor and make the yeast happy during fermentation. If you are adjusting the total water, these effects will still be there, but they can be further customized by breaking them up into specific brew steps.

If you are using a water adjustment calculator program from the internet, there are ways to shoot for a specific water profile and then break the addition into two portions, mash and sparge (or boil - that's what I do).

There's way more to it than what's described here, and I can suggest the book "Water" by John Palmer and Colin Kaminski as a thorough guide to making water adjustments. John's book "How to Brew" also has good information on adjusting brewing water - that's where I started.

Also one of my more popular suggestions is to know what your water looks like before making any adjustments. If you are getting it from the tap, have it analyzed so you'll know what's in it. www.wardlab.com is where I go for this testing - not very expensive, fast results, easy to do. Worth it.

 
Martin Brungard has built a spreadsheet that will help you calculate the water additions you need. He also provides an excellent discussion of what each addition does for your water and helps you split the additions for mashing and sparge. The sheet has lots of moving parts and it takes a bit of reading and a bit of trial and error to use effectively; but, if you spend a couple of hours reading and playing with it, it will reward you with better beer.      https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/
 
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