I'm making a saison today and had the mash going for the first 25 minutes (out of 90) or so before adding CaCl, CaSO4 and Acid Malt. I'm not worried, but I am curious about how this could impact the final product. How does timing of water additions impact mash efficiency, extraction, conversion, etc?
I'd be interested in hearing about this as well. Last brew day I tried to multi-task a bit too much and forgot my salts until 3/4 of the way through the mash.
I've heard John Palmer recommend waiting until 15min into the mash to add salts. If you are using distilled/RO water, if you try to add salts before mashing, they just sink to the bottom(they don't/can't dissolve). However, 15min into the mash the pH has dropped and the salts will now go into solution. Adding salts at 25min of a 90min boil is actually, close to ideal according to JP and JZ. 65min is plenty of time for acid malt to do it's thing.
In my experience, calcium chloride and calcium sulfate dissolve pretty easily in water. Calcium carbonate (chalk) is obviously another story. If I'm not using chalk, I'd be inclined to add my salts at the beginning so I don't have to screw around with the mash once it is going.
In an effort to simplify my brew day procedures, I add salts 15 min into a 90 min mash with all my batches with no negative effects. Just my procedure.
I add my gypsum and calcium chloride as the strike water heats when its around 100 degrees F. I'm light handed on the salts and they seem to dissolve well. I think its in the Water book that Palmer states the salts dissolve best around 100 degrees. I have added salts to the mash previously and on one occasion I found a glob of white sludge when I was cleaning the tun that appeared to be my salts. With enough stirring it probably would have been fine, though.
