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Water profile with topup water

domanah

Master Brewer
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Hello, due to limitations on my equipment I sometimes brew (BIAB) a "concentrate" and the  dilute it in the fermenter. In this case do I only consider the mash water to determine the water chemistry additions. Any wisdom?
 
For the most part, the affect of the mineral salts for water quality and mash pH should be based upon the mash and sparge water volumes.  This can change depending upon how much you need to top off in your fermenter.  In general, it is the minerals, Calcium and Magnesium, which aid in the enzyme activity during conversion and later will help the yeast activity and ability to flock, falling out of suspension.  Usually, there is enough Calcium and Magnesium coming from the grains to supply what you need for fermentation.

Having said that, you can adjust for a final wort concentration of added minerals and ions using the water profile tool in BeerSmith.  You can start with a typical mash volume, add the dilution water volume as your top off water, and then construct the ionic balance for where you want.  Then remove the dilution water volume to get a target for your mash water.  Save this as a water profile and then use the water tab in the recipe to match your mash volume to this new profile.  Then, once you add in your top off water, your finished profile should be close to where you want it to be going into the fermenter.

 
Thank you for the reply. So to clarify for myself if mash volume is X and topoff water is Y, I then use X+Y as the volume in beersmith to calculate the mineral additions and then add those quantities to my mash volume X. Then brew like normal and topoff in the fermenter with volume Y.
 
Pretty close if I follow you correctly.

Here is an example with screen shot.  I created a water profile for NEIPA styles using my base water.  Since I predominantly do full volume BIAB mashes, I entered in an average amount of water to treat in the water profile tool found under 'tools' > 'water profile tool' in BeerSmith.  If I take this profile and take out 2 liters to use as top off, I change the initial water volume from 15.5 liters to 13.5 liters and add 2 liters of distilled water as my top off in the box highlighted in yellow.  I now make the mineral profile that I want and erase the 2 liters of top off water.  Then, I save this profile as a target water to match.

Once in the recipe, I will go to the water tab and enter in my water source.  It will appear as the amount needed for the mash (less the 2 liters top off) and I can then have the software match my desired target profile. This will get the minerals and other ions close to the target you want.  Note that it will not be exact since the water adjustment does not account for boil off, but then again it does not (and cannot) account for minerals and ions which come from the grains.  Regardless, it will get you close enough to keep the intention of your water profile.
 

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Thanks! From what I could gather the dilution field is when you want to dilute your base water before you mash. In my case I will add the topoff water after the boil in the fermenter. If my base water and dilution water are RO water does it make difference whether if I enter the total (mash and topoff) volume into the base water volume to calculate the mineral additions.
 
No, the water tab in the recipe will scale all the additions based on the profile you desire.  If you make the profile based upon all the water and then in the program just enter tha mash volume, the software will scale the additions to that lower amount.
 
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