Relatively new to water /brewing salt additions and was wondering what the consensus was on when to add these minerals to the brewing water? Do you add them the night before brew day or on the morning of? Or can they simply be mixed in just prior to brewing? I am trying to add the campden tabs as early as possible but wasn’t sure about the gypsum, caco3, lactic acid etc…Thanks in advance!
On deck : Plinian Legacy
Bottle conditioning: “Harold is Weizen” Hefeweizen
Assuming you’re doing all grain, and assuming you know what your starting water profile is, calcium chloride, calcium sulfate, baking soda, campden and any other readily soluble salts can be added immediately prior to use.
Ken is right. I will add:
If you are brewing with extract, then I would strongly recommend that you do not use salts, and furthermore you should use distilled water, because extract already contains most or all of the brewing salts that you need as part of the extract manufacturing process.
In any case, take into careful consideration that there are already salts in your water or extract. Don’t add salts just because “it seems like the thing to do”. Only play with salts if you have performed a water test and you really know what you are doing. Water is the thing to play with after you have completely mastered all other aspects of the brewing ingredients and process.
Thanks for the replies Ken and Dave.
Yes, all grain, working off of a Ward labs water report for our house and using Bru’n water site for calculating additions. Have done 3 beers thus far with water additions. I was trying to determine the best timing; trying to verify when to achieve best results.
Then you’ve gone a long ways already. Tab 3, the water report, in the “Total Water Additions” section will tell you how much to add to each of the mash and sparge waters.
I premix the water and salts, i do it a couple days before hand because at least one of the salts takes a while to dissolve. I’m sure if the water was heated it would go faster. Still i do it all before hand to save time on brew day.
Where it says don’t add to the sparge, don’t, i put in the kettle as the notes say you can.
Acid goes in the water beforehand. In my opinion before it’s heated.
Thanks, based on your responses I went ahead and took care of the water additions tonight. Anything to simplify the brew day! Brewing a double IPA so went with a ph of 5.4 and a sulfate of 264/chloride to sulfate ratio of 0.54. Sparge water treated separately.
