My appologies for being a dense brewer, this water lark has got me completely confused. Could anyone please tell me what treatments do what. )
and ph 5.2 is a 'buffer' which will lock your mash to the correct ph (hopefully)You're not getting a free tutorial on water chemistry - I don't understand it after seven years of brewing!
In the good old days you boiled your water with calcium to remove the carbonates. Now, having removed carbonates with acid, at a very simple level you're adding salts as follows:
yeast likes calcium - helps performance and flocculation
magnesium is neither here nor there - it's a traditional Burton ingredient - but there's enough in an all-grain wort
chloride helps enhance malt
sulphate (I think) enhances hop bitterness, adds crispness somehow, allows you to use more hop and keep the flavour acceptable
table salt is there as a flavour enhancer same in cooking
all this is recollected from the books.
DLS is an all-purpose cocktail that will get many waters about right, but of course it isn't tuned to style. We throw in a teaspoon or so of gypsum for bitter and stout, CaCl2 for mild, brown and porter. Have you seen the CBA water treatment factsheet? (The version from HQ has been updated compared to the version on the website).