when to add salts

[wilfh]

When should I be adding my salt additions. I thought I put them all in the mash but I've been reading that they should be split between mash and sparge water.

If so what proportions? 50: 50 or proportionally in line with the mash and sparge water?

cheers
wilf

[Jocky]

Personally I put about 50% in the mash (it goes through the malt mill with my grain) and the rest gets dumped into the boil.

[BenB]

Adding a proportion of salts to the kettle as Jocky advised would certainly avoid the issue of driving the sparge pH high by adding them at that point (sparge) if adding alkalinity. I suspect adding calcium carbonate at any point is fairly futile

In fact I can't think of an advantage of adding at the sparge rather than the kettle. Even if just adding non alkalinity salts I'm not sure how much impact calcium additions in the sparge water would have on pH- there's limited time for the calcium/phosphate reactions to occur and the mash reactions might have utilized readily available phosphate. So if they're not going to impact on pH in sparge then you may as well add that proportion into the kettle.

Presumably the proportion of salts to add into the mash versus the kettle will depend on initial liquor profile, grain bill / dark malts and target water profile. e.g. a low alkalinity water with a high mineral target profile and a dark beer might need added alkalinity or at least deferring calcium/magnesium salts to the kettle. Meanwhile a high alkalinity water starting point with a modest mineral content target profile and a light beer might need all available salts to drive the mash pH low (or the use of acids).

I think the above makes sense

[Mr. Dripping]

I generally add my salts pro rata to the amount of liquor I am using at the time.
If I'm full volume mashing, then all the salts go in at the start.
If I'm batch sparging, then I will add them pro rata in accordance with how much liquor I am using for the mash, top up liquor for first batch sparge and then the final batch sparge.

[Eric]

There is no easy answer and probably no perfect answer. I'd suppose it likely depends upon how much are needed and for what purpose. There should be no need for additional alkalinity in the sparge or boil unless it was to correct an earlier cock-up.

Calcium is valuable at every stage while magnesium is mostly needed for fermentation. Accordingly, less magnesium would be needed when added to the kettle rather than the sparge liquor, when some would be retained in the mash. Calcium also reduces pH and when brewing a beer that benefits from a higher calcium level it might not be wise to add it all to the mash, while with a lower calcium profile it can be helpful to keep some back to ensure there's enough to form break and deposit protein during the boiling stage. If your water has low calcium levels, adding salts to the sparge liquor will reduce the increase in pH that might extract unwanteds from the grain when the buffering properties of sugars are depleted.

If you are happy with your results, then fine. If you think a change might have advantage, give it a try.

[Rad]

I personally never add salts to sparge water. I don't see the point of doing it. I use soft bottled water as my tap water is rock hard and doesn't taste great even filtered. It's just for washing out the rest of sugars. Soft water changes ph willingly so tannins won't be an issue unless you try to squeeze out every last gram of sugars

Most of my beers don't need too many additions so I usually dunk them to hot water just before mash. If needed more than I'm comfortable mashing with, I'd add the rest before boil.

[wilfh]

As usual- lots of food for thought. Thanks everyone.
Wilf