Graham's water calculator

(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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Troutman47
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Graham's water calculator

Post by Troutman47 » Sat Jul 09, 2016 11:13 am

Hi all,
I've had my water analysis back from Wallybrew and put the results in Graham's water calculator.

So, where it says 'volume to be treated' is that the total amount of water I'm going to use or is it the amount of wort before the boil?

Also, I'm just going to add Calcium Sulphate and Calcium Chloride Flakes, when do I add them? In the full amount of water? In the mash? In the boil?

I'm making an IPA and plan to dry hop.

Many thanks

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Eric
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Re: Graham's water calculator

Post by Eric » Sat Jul 09, 2016 1:20 pm

Graham includes his advice in his notes. Note 9 has a section headed "Adding Your Water Treatment Stuff".

This subject is not that straightforward, as Graham covers. Calcium is vital in the mash and much is consumed there. Salt addition will quantities depend upon how much is already in the water, so there is no easy explanation to cover every circumstance.
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Re: Graham's water calculator

Post by rpt » Sat Jul 09, 2016 1:40 pm

The salts won't dissolve easily in water so are added to the mash or the boil, depending on what they are designed to achieve.

Troutman47
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Re: Graham's water calculator

Post by Troutman47 » Sat Jul 09, 2016 2:01 pm

Thank you for your replies gents.

So if I've got this right, the Calcium Sulphate is going in the mash mixed in with the grain and the Calcium Chloride Flakes are going in the boil.

Cheers.

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Aleman
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Re: Graham's water calculator

Post by Aleman » Sat Jul 09, 2016 3:41 pm

rpt wrote:The salts won't dissolve easily in water
Actually that's not strictly true, certainly calcium chloride is readily soluble, the tricky one is calcium sulphate which is soluble to 2350mg/l after that it sits at the bottom of the container and laughs at you :D . . . However if you have a lot of calcium in your water then its harder to get it into solution. I have no issues getting it to dissolve, but then I mix it into the full volume of the liquor (especially as I full Volume mash in a Braumeister)

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Good Ed
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Re: Graham's water calculator

Post by Good Ed » Sun Jul 10, 2016 11:15 am

You would add both CaSO4 and CaCl to the mash and boil. I add 2/3 to the mash and 1/3 to the boil, others I know split 50:50. As noted CaSO4 doesn't readily dissolve, but for the mash I mix the salts with a bit of the hot liquor before adding and stirring into the mash.

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Aleman
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Re: Graham's water calculator

Post by Aleman » Sun Jul 10, 2016 5:05 pm

Good Ed wrote:As noted CaSO4 doesn't readily dissolve, but for the mash I mix the salts with a bit of the hot liquor before adding and stirring into the mash.
It doesn't readily dissolve if your trying to dissolve it in a small amount of the liquor (Like 10g in a litre . . . It'll sit at the bottom and laugh at you). Dissolve it in the total volume of mash liquor and you will have no issues. . . . Certainly dissolve it in the liquor and then add the grain, otherwise you can't be certain that it's properly mixed into the mash ;)

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Re: Graham's water calculator

Post by Troutman47 » Mon Jul 11, 2016 12:57 pm

Well if I understood Graham's water calculator right I've put 9g of gypsum in the mash and 5g calcium chloride flakes in the boil.

First time I've used fresh yeast as well, it's bubbling away like a good'n! =D>

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