re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

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My recipe calls for calcium and sulfate additions to achieve 125-150mg/L Ca, 75-100mg/L sulfate, and 175-200mg/L Cl.

From what I am finding, hardness is the addition of the cations, usually Ca and Mg. Does that mean I can subtract the Ca (30) from the total hardness (75) to estimate my Mg at 45? That doesn't seem right at all. Mg is the only mineral requested by online calculators that is not listed on my water report.

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I'm pretty dumb about water chemistry, so I use the free version of Bru'n Water. You can play around with mineral additions to dial in the amount.

As far as Mg is concerned, don't worry about it. Ignore it in your calculations. Your grain will provide enough Mg for the yeast to do their thing.

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do you find that you need 2qt of water per lb of fermentable?

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When I did regular mashes and sparges I used 1.5qt/lb for the mash and then used whatever else I needed for my final pre-boil volume as the sparge water. I used this calculator for my water volume calcs.

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How much volume do you want in the boil pot prior to boil to reach a final post boil volume of approximately 5gal? I know that this can vary by how vigorously you boil, but as a general rule of thumb how much of the pre boil volume can I expect to evaporate off in an hour?

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That can vary pretty widely based on boil vigor, kettle shape, depoints, etc. On my system I shoot for 8 gallons preboil for a 60 minute boil. I know I'll lose ~1.5 gal/hr to boil off and then another half gallon to the bottom of the kettle. You just have to dial in your system to those numbers.