However, they do support adding salts to match the overall water profile for the beer. Like the previous group they believe that oversparging is unlikely and the acid is not really needed. Add Salts but Don’t Add Acids – The middle group of brewers do add water salts to their mash and sparge water but don’t bother with adding acid to control the pH.Just treat your mash water and its good enough! These people also point out that pH is most critical during the mash itself, and absent the rare event of “oversparging”, adding more stuff to your sparge water may just be solving a problem that does not exist. Phosphoric and lactic acids have their own flavor if used in high enough quantity. Some of the reasons include a belief that salts won’t have enough time to work, the fact that oversparging is very rare in home brewing, and finally a belief that adding more acid could result in off flavors. I Don’t Treat No Stinking Sparge Water! – There is one group of brewers that simply don’t add any water treatment at all to their sparge water.In practice oversparging is pretty rare in home brewing as home brewing equipment is not as efficient as commercial brewing equipment and also we rarely sparge to the point of maximum extraction. In particular, pH levels above 5.8-6.0 can result in excessive tannin extraction from the grains leaving an astringent flavor in the finished beer. Typically lactic acid, phosphoric acid and acid malts are used at the homebrew level to control the mash pH for optimal mashing.įinally, during the sparge you need to avoid allowing the mash pH to rise too high ( called “oversparging”). In these cases you should measure your pH and add an acid if it is not low enough. In many cases the addition of salts alone is not sufficient to achieve a low enough mash pH. Common additives include gypsum, epsom salt, table salt, calcium chloride and baking soda. As mentioned above water salts are typically added to achieve a desired water profile which can be done to lower the residual alkalinity of the water, control the chloride to sulfate ratio (which drives bitterness), match a profile for a given city or beer style or perhaps just to place the six major water ions within the acceptable range for brewing and a healthy fermentation. There are several competing factors in treating mash and sparge water. Salts are usually added to achieve a desired water profile for the beer, while acids are commonly added to bring the mash pH down to an ideal range of 5.1-5.4 for mashing. Treating your brewing water may include adding salts (Epsom salt, baking soda, gypsum, etc…) as well as acids (usually lactic acid, acid malt or phosphoric acid). Follow controversial subject in home brewing is whether to treat your sparge water the same as you do your mash water when home brewing beer? This week we look at several competing camps and try to answer this difficult question for home brewers.

Beersmith 3 mash out