The water calculator allows softening the mash water with slaked lime, but doesn't have a similar option for the sparge water. In cases where I'm making a slightly darker beer I like to leave my bicarbonates alone (~100 ppm) for the mash but reduce them for the sparge to help keep the pH and tannins down without having to acidify it.
Lime Softening sparge water
- Thread starter Ryan Bair
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your main mash will reduce the ph on its own but when sparging the mash cant so the once 7 ph water now can cause problems but only if you slow sparge over an hour, if you just dump and drain its fine
