Water Chemistry Newbie - Salt Addition Help

[inkman15]

I'm going to start dabbling in water chemistry for the first time (finally) and think I'll try to build up from Distilled water. Given that I totally don't understand this stuff yet, I'm hoping someone can help me with the salts calculations. Let's say I want to do the followin water profile of:

Ca: 106 ppm
Cl: 134 ppm
SO4: 74 ppm

I can't seem to figure out what salts in what concentrations to add to my mash water. The table I found in How To Brew tells me that Calcium Chloride has the net effect per 1 gram of 72ppm Ca+2 and 127 CL-1. Mathematically, there isn't a way to make it exactly hit those numbers above. SO4 is another issue entirely. It would be really helpful if someone could help me understand how they would achieve the numbers above assuming a distilled water starting profile.

Thanks again.

 

[bonecitybrewco]

I'm going to start dabbling in water chemistry for the first time (finally) and think I'll try to build up from Distilled water. Given that I totally don't understand this stuff yet, I'm hoping someone can help me with the salts calculations. Let's say I want to do the followin water profile of:

Ca: 106 ppm
Cl: 134 ppm
SO4: 74 ppm

I can't seem to figure out what salts in what concentrations to add to my mash water. The table I found in How To Brew tells me that Calcium Chloride has the net effect per 1 gram of 72ppm Ca+2 and 127 CL-1. Mathematically, there isn't a way to make it exactly hit those numbers above. SO4 is another issue entirely. It would be really helpful if someone could help me understand how they would achieve the numbers above assuming a distilled water starting profile.

Thanks again.

Bru'n Water.

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

 

[BeardedBrews]

Most of us use a calculator:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/
or the advanced version
http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/

Distilled water will have 0 for everything, and then try 4g Gypsum and 8g calcium chloride as a starting point.

Edit:
Don't forget to account for your mash pH, in light to medium mashes you'll probably need to add some acid.

 

[inkman15]

Thanks. I've been messing with it since yesterday and still can't figure up from down.

Bru'n Water.

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Old but still good
BreWater 3.0, by Ken Schwartz, http://brewery.org/brewery/files/brewater.zip
Bru N Water https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

 

[bonecitybrewco]

Thanks. I've been messing with it since yesterday and still can't figure up from down.

If you set your dilution rate to 100% and either distilled or RO, it will give you a blank slate. Then you can add your total mash volume, total sparge volume etc. Also, make sure to add your grains for the recipe on the appropriate page as well. Then you can start adding (for example) 0.1 grams per gallon of CaCl to mash and see how it affects the overall numbers.

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Thanks. I've been messing with it since yesterday and still can't figure up from down.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTA_VmqhbQ[/ame]

 

[inkman15]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTA_VmqhbQ

Funny - I just discovered this about an hour ago and it helped SO much. Thanks all.