Brewcipher water profile: mash vs overall

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Curmudgeon, Sep 23, 2021.

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  1. Curmudgeon

    Curmudgeon Savant (1,110) May 29, 2014 Massachusetts
    BA4LYFE Society

    Don't shoot! I've asked this in the past and I probably noted it somewhere but I can't find it - when I look up recommended water profiles for beers and I see something like:

    Weizenbock (recommended)
    Ca: 50-75
    Sulfate: 50-150
    Chloride: 50-150
    etc.

    ...and I want to abide by these recommendations - do I aim to hit those results in the Mash line section of Brewcipher? (example #1 below just adding 3.5g CaCl2 and 3.2g CaSO4). Or, do I add the salts to the Mash for pH and flavor and then move to "Kettle amount" in order to hit the remaining "recommended" values above? (example #2 below)

    Example #1
    Salt CaCl2 CaSO4 MgCl2 MgSO4 NaCl NaHCO3 Ca(OH)2
    Mash Amount (g) 3.5 3.2
    Kettle Amount (g)
    Water Results Ca Mg Na Cl SO4 HCO3
    Mash H2O Concentration (ppm) 77 0 0 76 80 0
    Sparge H2O Concentration (ppm) 0 0 0 0 0 0
    Overall H2O Concentration (ppm) 51 0 0 51 54 0 - (low?)

    Example #2
    Salt CaCl2 CaSO4 MgCl2 MgSO4 NaCl NaHCO3 Ca(OH)2
    Mash Amount (g) 3.5 3.2
    Kettle Amount (g) 1.8 1.8
    Water Results Ca Mg Na Cl SO4 HCO3
    Mash H2O Concentration (ppm) 77 0 0 76 80 0
    Sparge H2O Concentration (ppm) 83 0 0 79 91 0
    Overall H2O Concentration (ppm) 79 0 0 77 84 0

    Any help appreciated!!!
     
  2. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    When you see those kinds of recommendations, they usually mean the overall water profile.

    I would concentrate on mash pH in the mash.

    If you were to add salts to the mash specifically for some flavor target, you'd end up undoing that by adding salts (to hit an overall target) in the kettle. I would say:

    Mash for pH.
    Kettle for flavor (which is also impacted by mash pH salts...kettle salts supplement them).

    You can't use your own notion of ion levels for flavor (i.e. your own profile) and build to someone else's recommended profile.

    Check out the Intro to Brewing Water Treatment at this page:
    http://sonsofalchemy.org/library/

    It goes into more detail, and walks you through one approach to building a water profile while also taking care of mash pH.
     
    #2 VikeMan, Sep 23, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2021
  3. Curmudgeon

    Curmudgeon Savant (1,110) May 29, 2014 Massachusetts
    BA4LYFE Society

    Thanks @VikeMan !!! Cool site! And nice little intro guide too. I think you understood (or it doesn't really matter for what we were talking about) but I'm using 100% distilled water.

    So I'm going to add 3.5g calcium chloride and 3.2g gypsum to the mash which should get me to around pH 5.48 per BrewCipher (also around 77 Ca, 76 Cl and 80 SO4).

    Then I'll add 1.8g each of the same two salts to the kettle. This'll get my overall water concentration to about 79 Ca, 77 Cl and 84 SO4.

    (*Calcs for these are coming from BrewCipher which already has my malt bill, hops, yeast and desired volume amounts) Thanks again!!
     
    VikeMan likes this.
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