I’ve been reading the new Water book from John and Colin (which is great!), but I do have a few questions that I’m hoping someone can help clear up for me.
On p. 156-159, they list some suggested water profiles by style of beer, and on p. 178 there is a table from another book that lists the ion contributions from a 10 plato wort brewed with DI water. What I’m wondering is do the water profiles listed on 156-159 take into account the contributions from the malt, or are the suggested profiles to be added in addition to whatever comes from the malt?
Also, it sounds like adding chalk (calcium carbonate) to the mash is tricky as there is low solubility at those pH levels. Looking at a few other resources, it looks like people often say that you should plan on getting about half of the calcium and carbonate concentrations that you expect. This would mean that you should double the chalk additions from whatever water calculator you use (after checking to see if they account for the low solubility of chalk first). What do you guys think about this? How do those of you who add chalk to the mash account for this?
Cheers,
Matt