Water chemistry question

[JJ Ouverson]

I have a quick question on water chemistry for my HERMS Setup and a 10 gallon batch of stout I\'m making. I treat all my water (mash:14.6g spare:6gal) at once. Although since I have to make sure the HERMS Coil is submerged I change the Total water volume to 30 gallons and treat All at once. The part I\'m confused about is Sparge water Acidification. I sparge until I get my pre-boil volume in my BK. Do I need to manually go up and change the Sparge volume to what is in the HLT to give me the correct ml\'s of Lactic acid I need? To clarify, the recipe only calls for 6 gallon of sparge water although I\'m having to use 20 gallons in my HLT to keep the HERMS coil submerged during the mash. Please let me know if you need any further information. Here is the link of the water profile:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemi ... id=S992TCB

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I have the same set up and yes if you add more water to keep the coils submerged after the mash is done and ready to be sparged you add the acid to bring all of the sparge water down to the correct level, theirs really no way around it, just discard the rest of the water after the volume is done but it all has to be treated.

I add the acid then run the HLT pump to recirculate the water check my ph and don't sparge until its correct

 

[JJ Ouverson]

Thanks for you reply! I'm still a little confused on what settings I should use with the calculator. just to recap

I treat all my water in the boil kettle (lets say 30 gallons). I do this because I like to underlet the mash
Plan is to treat all 30 gallons with the salts and the acid
Underlet the mash with 15 gallons
Fill the HLT with the the other 15 gallons
after 60 minutes fly sparge from the HLT to Mash to BK

Is there any settings in the calculator that can accomplish the above?
or
might it be easier to add the sats to all 30 gallons and then add the Acid to the Mash and to the HLT separate?
or
Underlet the Mash then add the salts and acid. Fill the HLT and add the acid

Thanks again for your help. It makes it a little more difficult since I'm underletting the mash. I prefer to add the salts prior to introducing it to the mash.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I personally do not add anything but acid to my sparge water, I only add salts to the mash, this site will not account for our set up currently but its easy to adjust in your head, the only thing I do is add the correct water to the mash tun using my 1.5 quarts per pound setting, the site will tell you that, then when I empty the water out of my HLT I just fill the HLT back up and reheat to my mash temp then add my acid after mashout temp and recirculate the whole pot before sparging, I then sparge until my preboil amount is met and discard the rest for cleaning my kettles out.

another way I do it is since we recirculate through the coil and lines, it takes more water than the site shows so I fill the mash tun from underneath until the water is about 3 inches above the grain bed then turn the pump on to run it through the coils and add more if necessary to achieve my 1 inch above the grain bed while recirculating, thats all I go by that 1 inch and my final preboil amount which I know is correct from that point on


as for the salts the site will adjust for the correct amount, but like i said I only tell it just for the mash and it will tell you the correct amount of acid for both but of course with our set up the sparge acid will be lite so i just add and test add and test until its correct

I know this isn't a definite answer, Im just going by what I do, I don't think the site will account for that much water and your settings in the calculator will be wrong. sorry

 

[JJ Ouverson]

I think I'll underlet the mash till it's 1-2" above the top. dissolve all my salts into a quart or so of water and add that and the acid directly to the mash, stirring a little. Then treat the entire sparge (always around 15 gallons) until I get a desired PH. Goal was to add the salts to the total water volume but it's a waste of salts plus the calculator assumes that all that water will see the mash; which isn't going to happen since I'm using way more sparge water than normal just to cover the coil. thanks again for all your help, great community!!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I think your on the right track, good luck