I'm going to attempt an partial mash ESB. I will use distilled water and add burton salts. I know I need to add the salts to my mash water, but I've read if you are doing extract you just add it to the boil.
For a partial mash, should I divide up the additions to mash water and boil? FYI, I have about 10 lbs of grains and 5 lbs of extract.
Thanks!
I've probably bought that same pack, and the fact they don't list the ingredients in proportion is annoying. I guess they figure its "trade secrets" or whatever.
Making the assumption that this isn't your first partial mash beer, I would suggest that you partial-mash normally, using the same water and minerals (if any) that you KNOW make good beer. The Burton Salts are sort of ambiguous, and could negatively impact your pH, but its dependent on your source water as well. So therefor, if you aren't sure what's in the salts exactly, and if you aren't sure how your water will react with them in the mash, then it makes the most sense to leave them out of the mash entirely.
Just add the salts to the boil for flavor. Of course, the amount to add might be questionable too. I'd suggest contacting the manufacturer and asking what amount they recommend adding for extract-only beers, and then just throw that into the boil.
The main reason to add the burton salts to the mash would be to adjust the pH, and secondly to impart a more assertive hop bitterness. Generally the salts will lower the pH if it's just comprised of Gypsum, but it really depends upon the composition.
After adding the malts, test the mash with a pH meter - if it's well over 5.2pH, then add increments of 5g of the burton salts until the pH is around 5.1-5.3pH. If it's well under, then add baking soda until the pH is in the right level. (You can also try chalk, but it's almost insoluble so quite difficult to use.)
If you don't have a pH meter, then I would still add the salts, plus some baking soda if you have dark malts, which provides buffering capacity in the water against any dark malts in the grist.
