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ppm concentrations when adding salts to mash/sparge water

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ukolowiczd:
I like to "make" certain waters by adding the salts to all of my pre-boil water that is low in salts (i.e. mash and sparge water). When using a salt table like in "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels, would I look at the 5 gallon concentrations or the 10 gallon concentrations? I would assume the 10 gallon concentrations since I'm using approximately that much in my total water bill. My calculations for the high end concentrations of 150-250ppm for darker beers have me adding 10-14 grams (2.5 - 3.5 tsp) of salt per 10 gallon. Does this sound right?

a10t2:
What salt(s) are you adding? Which ion concentration(s) are you looking at?

Here's Palmer's table that gives the concentrations for various salt additions: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-4.html

nateo:
Personally, I don't think I'd ever want over 100ppm of anything in my brewing water. I used to futz with my brewing water a lot, but I've found brewing with the least mineralized water (while providing adequate calcium and alkalinity, when applicable) has given me the best results. It's not a very popular opinion. I suggest if you think you need a certain amount of ions in your brewing water, try brewing it with and without, and see which you prefer, instead of taking anyone else's word for it.

gordonstrong:

--- Quote from: nateo on July 10, 2012, 08:18:41 am ---It's not a very popular opinion.

--- End quote ---

Depends on who you ask...

hopfenundmalz:
I went through the phase of over engineering my water. I am back to the less is more approach. If you have a pH meter you can measure the mash pH, and if it is good, don't mess with it any more.

You want Calcium in the 50-100 ppm range, and you need to know that some will come from the mash. Use gypsum or CaCl2 as the added calcium source, balancing the SO4 and Cl for the beer you are making. Mg I don't bother with anymore, enough comes from the mash to make the yeast healthy. I avoid chalk and baking soda to raise the pH, pickling lime is the tool I like for that. If the pH needs to be dropped, I have phosphoric and lactic acid for that, but I have only been using the phosphoric for the last few years.

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