Liquor treatment questions

[pads72]

I know there are a variety of newbie liquor treatment threads, but I've browsed, become confused and still feel to ask my own questions, so please bear with me!
My next brew will be the first to have the liquor treated, so this is what I've gleaned so far...

I've got a Salifert test kit, which showed my water's alkalinity as 171 mg/L.
My South West Water report shows the following info (I've taken averages from the report):
Sodium 14mg/L
Chloride 29.5mg/L
Sulphate 21mg/L
Hardness as Ca 78mg/L

Plotting these details into Graham Wheeler's great Liquor Treatment Calculator, it comes up with the following for 45L of liquor to use in a 'dry pale ale' profile:
35.6 ml of CRS
19.26 g of gypsum
5.51 g of Calcium Chloride (dihydrate)
1.83 g of Sodium Chloride (common salt)

Do these look right?

My intention was to add 1/2 crushed campden tablet to 45L water the night before.
Then add 2/3rds of CRS when filling the HLT then measure the alkalinity again and recalculate the final amount to be added. I understand this helps prevent the over addition of CRS which would potentially drive the mash pH too low. Is this right?

Could someone advise on when to add the gypsum, calcium chloride (dihydrate) and the salt?

Thanks

[Aleman]

If I was forced to use CRS then I would most definitely only add 1/2 the amount to start with and see where that got me. I would then adjust as necessary. Also I add the acid when I'm filling my Boiler/HLT and leaving it overnight will cause no harm.

My personal preference is to add 2/3s of the salts directly to the dry grist, and 1/3 to the boiler before running off the sweet wort, other people do things differently

[Eric]

The subject is confusing.
Your alkalinity measurement fits quite well with the water company numbers, a better start than for most. With that level of alkalinity you should notice a significant improvement in your beers with good water treatment.
My water will not readily dissolve gypsum, there can be no such problems with calcium chloride flake or table salt. For this reason I never add gypsum to my liquor, but add it to the grist and direct to the boiler. You might like to do an initial test to see if that problem applies to your water and act accordingly.
One reason for having calcium salts in the sparge liquor is that their presence will lower pH to reduce the likelihood of extracting such as phenols, tannins and other undesirables as the sugars diminish. I have to find another way to achieve the same.
Sounds like you have a good plan.

[pads72]

Thanks both Aleman & Eric, very useful to know when to add the salts.

I've bought the CRS, so I'll stick with it for now!

[Eric]

Don't knock CRS until you've tried it as it works well in many waters. It won't be ideal for absolutely every beer style or water supply, but it doesn't deserve the reputation it has gained in recent times. Neither CRS nor the British style draught beers it can make are fully available and accepted outside the UK and I frequently wonder what opinions might now be both here and abroad if they were. I wonder too if Homer Simpson ever experienced the miriad of sensations of an "on song" good British beer (one with taste) hitting the spot at the end of one of those days or whether all he knows of and expects is a cold fizzy drink that has equal ability to thin his blood and numb just enough of his senses.

All waters will make beer, but different waters have differing influences on possibly all of the vast array of processes that take place from the second that water and grain meet up to and including the moments when the beer makes contact with a human's sensory cells. There are a couple of decent scripts here and here about the chemistry concerned and a bit about when and where made available courtesy of the company that originated AMS and CRS.

[Jocky]

CRS isn't really any different to any other acid - you need to be a little aware of what's in it and therefore what it is suitable for.

For my water profile (260ppm CaCO3, 120ppm Ca, very low in everything else) CRS is a very nice and easy way of reducing carbonates, while mildly increasing sulphate and chloride levels, and leaves me with a good base for almost any style except a lager.

However if I threw it in thinking I could make a lager with my water I can see why I might decide later that CRS is bad.