Any chemists on here? Quick question

(That's water to the rest of us!) Beer is about 95% water, so if you want to discuss water treatment, filtering etc this is the place to do it!
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Matt in Birdham
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Any chemists on here? Quick question

Post by Matt in Birdham » Fri Nov 06, 2015 4:20 pm

Currently I am pre-treating my water with slaked lime to precipitate out the temporary hardness. This seems to be working great, dropping alkalinity from 240 or so down to 50ish.

Before brewing I also have a bunch of other treatments to add: campden, gypsum and sometimes calcium chloride. It is a minor pain because I have to decant water from my slaked lime treatment bucket and then add the subsequent treatments to the mash and sparge water separately.

Question: Is there any reason why I couldn't just add all of my treatments at the same time? This would be slaked lime, gypsum, campden and calcium chloride. It would make my life a little easier. I can't add the treatments after the slaked lime has precipitated, because I don't want to stir the sediment up. My concern is that there might be some other chemical reactions that occur when adding everything at once, and my results might be different.

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Aleman
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Re: Any chemists on here? Quick question

Post by Aleman » Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:13 pm

The only issue that I can see is that with highish levels of calcium, gypsum can be a PITA to get to dissolve.

Campden treatment as you fill your container, then any calcium chloride, then slaked lime, then decant the treated liquor and add the gypsum.

Matt in Birdham
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Re: Any chemists on here? Quick question

Post by Matt in Birdham » Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:38 pm

Thanks Aleman - sounds like a plan! Will make life a bit easier, and lesson the chances of me forgetting something on brewday..

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