Sodium ferrocyanide OK ?

[Matt in Birdham]

Obviously it sounds rather nasty, but it's just the anti-caking agent in the table salt I happen to have in the cupboard.
As per the water treatment thread, I am planning on increasing my Cl and Na levels in my next brew (tomorrow) by adding about 5g of table salt to 23 litres.

Couple of quick questions:

* Is sodium ferrocyanide safe to use in brewing? (yeast health I guess would be the main concern).

* If salt doesn't say that it is iodized, is it safe to assume that it is not?

On mash versus kettle additions, the one thing that strikes me as odd is that most of the calculators appear to use the entire water volume when calculating the final ppm values. e.g. if I have 20l mash and 15l sparge and 5kg grain, I will probably end up with 30l in the kettle, not 35l (grain absorption). So if I am making salt additions in the kettle, shouldn't the values reflect the 30l total volume? Also of course there will be boil off - perhaps another 5l - so salt concentrations will rise again.. so in this situation, when making salt additions for flavour and not mash ph, should I actually base the additions on the 25l I will have left at the end of the boil?

[WallyBrew]

Why don't you just go out and buy some cooking salt as this is usually free of the additions found in table salt and is much cheaper.

You could just calculate what you want the final sodium chloride concentration in the beer and add the appropriate quantity to the copper. You will need to allow for any fluid retention by the trub if you do not sparge it.

[Matt in Birdham]

You are right of course Wallybrew - laziness is the answer Planning on an early mash-in in the morning but should be able to nip out beforehand.