topping up the boiler

[sam c]

im still researching in to AG brewing as im sure many of you did before you took the plunge and was wondering if you reach 1.006 before collecting your pre-boil volume and then top up the boiler with water to compensate does that water have to be treated in the same way you would do for the mash and sparge water? i know that it is important to have the correct PH for the mash and thought that as that has already been done and it would probably only be a couple of litres does it matter?


also i just remembered, if a recipe calls for hops to be steeped @ 80 c for 30 mins does that mean at the end of the boil let the wort cool down to 80 c, add the hops and leave it for 30 mins. or maintain 80 c for 30 mins. and then i take it i turn on the chiller once the 30 mins is up?

cheers

sam

[Parva]

im still researching in to AG brewing as im sure many of you did before you took the plunge and was wondering if you reach 1.006 before collecting your pre-boil volume and then top up the boiler with water to compensate does that water have to be treated in the same way you would do for the mash and sparge water? i know that it is important to have the correct PH for the mash and thought that as that has already been done and it would probably only be a couple of litres does it matter?

Ideally yes but having said that I find that I usually need to add about 5 litres of water to my HLT for batch sparge #2 and I haven't bothered adding anymore campden to it. In the past I have added a further 1/2 of a campden tablet but having seen the results without adding that I know that there's no difference whatsoever. I guess it depends on just how chlorinated your water supply is, only you can decide that one unfortunately.

also i just remembered, if a recipe calls for hops to be steeped @ 80 c for 30 mins does that mean at the end of the boil let the wort cool down to 80 c, add the hops and leave it for 30 mins. or maintain 80 c for 30 mins. and then i take it i turn on the chiller once the 30 mins is up?

Stop chilling at 80c, hops in then leave for 30 minutes before continuing to cool, no need to maintain the temperature.

[sam c]

cheers for that.

one more if you dont mind. do you treat your mash and sparge water in the same way or do you add just a camden tablet for the sparge water but treat the mash water with other stuff? havent quite got my head round water treatment yet but i do know that i have very hard water in m y area back in the UK.

[Parva]

I have no idea what my water profile is but know it's pretty soft so the mash water gets half a campden tablet and that's that. As I said, my HLT doesn't quite hold enough water for both batch sparges so I have to top up with about 5l of water, this I don't bother treating. The mash itself gets a teaspoon of gypsum. And that's as far as I go regarding water treatment.

[sam c]

thanks. think i will look into water treatment a little more.