[Stevie]

I heat my water in my kettle, measure into buckets adding a bit extra for the expansion, dump into my cooler. Salts are already in the cooler, mix, add grains, mix again.

[hophead636]

Here is grain bill and my salt additions




Used RO water

[hophead636]

Oh but sub out the marris otter with pearl malt 2.4 srm 11.4 lbs

[YooperBrew]

You have CaC02 listed- I assume you mean CaCo3?  If so, make a note to NEVER use it!

There are several reasons- one is that you almost never need to add alkalinity to a mash except in rare incidences.  But the main reason is that it doesn't dissolve properly without extraneous measures like bubbling c02 through it.  So, if you need to add alkalinity (and you normally don't), use something like pickling lime or baking soda which would be effective if needed.

Most grists and water combos need acid, not alkalinity.  What was your mash pH?  That's really the important thing.  (And no, it wasn't 4.6!)

For me, "less is more" really does apply.  I see no need for canning salt, for example, unless your chloride was low and you didn't want to add more calcium but that small amount won't matter. 

I generally use only gypsum and cacl2, with a bit of acid, for 90% of my beers. 

[hophead636]

Ha my own mess up was cacl2 that was my bad lol I wrote it wrong from the screen of mcdoles promash caco2 is the next box down lol

[hophead636]

Corrected additions lol ,  didn't have chalk so no worries there on accidental usage it was just calcium chloride under a new alias lol

[YooperBrew]

Ok, better!   

I don't have bru'nwater on this computer- when I travel I use a mini netbook- but if you want a good idea of the probable mash pH, you could use a brewing spreadsheet that estimates it. 

Brewer's Friend has a free water spreadsheet.  You put in your recipe, and your water and additions, and it gives you the estimated mash pH.  It's been pretty close for me almost every time. 

Ideally, you'd have a mash pH of 5.3-5.5 for the vast majority of beers. 

[hophead636]

Thanks yoop,  yea I got bru'nwater on my home computer but I still haven't had the time to sit and really figure it out and work it out.  One of these weekends when the little man is at the grandparents I'll take a night to learn it fully lol, 

And my mash converted fully and hit est. pre boil gravity of 1.064 so my guess is the strips were way off and my ph was pretty close to the 5.4 range.  I'll play around with the Brewers friend water one again till I figure out bru'nwater

[hophead636]

Well I plugged everything in to Brewers friend calc and I hit ph dead on what I wanted 5.4 altho it was 5.47 but that's close enough for me on my first time lol

[erockrph]

Well I plugged everything in to Brewers friend calc and I hit ph dead on what I wanted 5.4 altho it was 5.47 but that's close enough for me on my first time lol

Brewers Friend's calculator gives virtually identical results to Brun'water for me. They're both great tools.

[hophead636]

Sweet so I'm just going to toss those crap strips because there useless that's for sure