Treating ALL then water or just the MASH water?

[Ron Reyes (Papa Piggy)]

I have been calculating all my water usually about 10 gallons for a 5 gallon batch and treating it all. However now I have access to use de-ionized water. And so Im wondering if there is a benefit to treating only the mash water and then spargging with straight DI water?

 

[GFHomebrew]

I use different sources for mash and sparge.
I add salts to mash only and acid but i do add some acid to my miniscule sparge volume (I pretty much full volume mash using just 5lt to rinse the grains).
As for using demineralised water for the sparge I've not done so but it just make sure ph is delt with (whatever Demineralised water ph is) and guess you should be good.

I can't find a spot in the water calc where you can enter a part volume of Demineralised water or RO water?
Would be good to know how adding a certain amount results in your overall mineral content

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

I check pH throughout the brew. I adjust mash, add acid to sparge and adjust pre-boil if necessary. I'm not sure what DI water would to the pH of the wort or the overall beer. Water with low mineral content has very little buffering capacity, so doesn't affect the pH much.

 

[Yooper]

Yes, that’s perfect. Sparge with RO or DI water which has no alkalinity and it will be perfect! (That’s what I do, actually) .

For the software, you can choose the “use different waters for mash and sparge” and it will calculate the resulting ions for you.

 

[Nosybear]

I just acidify my sparge to pH 5.6 or lower. Works well for me.

 

[Hawkbox]

Yeah... I dechlorinize my sparge water... yeah treating it, that's the stuff.