Mashing and Finished Water Profiles

The Supporter’s version of Bru’n Water includes a somewhat cryptic report for both the Mashing and Overall Finished Water Profiles. As shown in the screenshot, the Mashing and Finished Water profiles are presented on the Water Adjustment sheet. While those profiles are usually identical, there are times when they aren’t and that can be to your advantage. Read on!

Why can they differ? Well, there are several reasons. The first is when you elect to add all your minerals directly to the kettle instead of to the mashing and sparging water. It’s pretty obvious why the mashing water concentrations would be lower than the finished water concentrations in this case. Bru’n Water has a setting asking if you want to “Add Hardness Minerals to the Kettle?” that lets the program know how you’ll be adding your minerals.

The second case may be a little more difficult to understand, but it’s a valuable technique when brewing delicate beer styles that benefit from a lightly mineralized water profile. Having low mineralization in the water can help the flavor in delicate styles stand out, but there are reasons to have higher mineralization in the mash. Specifically, the mashing water should have at least 40 mg/L calcium to aid in the removal of oxalate (which creates beerstone) from the wort. By selecting YES at the “Add Sparging Water mineral additions to the Mash?” prompt, the sparging water mineral additions are included in the mashing water additions to boost its concentrations. Making sure that the calcium content is above 40 mg/L is the goal. When the less-mineralized sparging water is added to the mash, the elevated mashing concentrations will be driven down to the Overall Finished Water profile.

The third reason why the Mashing and Finished Water profiles may differ is when alkalinity-increasing minerals such as lime, baking soda, or chalk are added to the mash. Bru’n Water assumes that alkalinity-increasing minerals are NEVER added to sparging water. Therefore, the calcium or sodium concentrations can be boosted by those additions to the mashing water. Their elevated concentrations are diluted when the less mineralized sparging water is added to the mash. This is especially important when adding baking soda, since brewers typically like to keep sodium content in wort relatively low. The Supporter’s version of Bru’n Water shows how the Mash’s high sodium level is diluted in the Finished profile.

So, those are reasons why there are differences in the Mashing and Finished Water profiles and how mineral addition strategies can aid your brewing.

Enjoy!