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I am thinking of dissolving a 1:1 salt to distilled water solution of a weight/volume that I can measure easier, then adding just the needed amount of the solution to my mash according to my water profile. I would store the rest of the solution for brewing batches later on.

The trouble has been measuring in such small quantities for 5 gallons brews. I hope to simplify the process without sacrificing precision.

My dilemma is in how much of the solution I would need to calculate to add to the mash/sparge. For example, if a profile calls for 1 gram of a salt and my solution is equal grams to milliliters, would I add 2 milliliters of solution for the 1 gram? The way I see it is 1 milliliter would be 50% salt and 50% water.

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If you make a 1g:1mL solution, then you still need to be as precise, you've just changed the measure from grams to milliliters (not millimeters ;). This might still be a useful change, though; sometimes its easier to measure volume than weight.

Instead, make a 1g:10mL solution. Now, assuming you can accurately measure 1mL of the solution, you can measure out 0.1g of the salt. A 1g:100mL solution would let you be uselessly precise! :)

Start with 1g of salt, then add enough water to end up at 100mL of solution. You might have added 99.5mL, but you now have 1g of salt distributed in now 100mL of solution.

It bears pointing out you can get 0.1g-accurate digital scales for $10 and 0.01g-accurate scales for $20. My usual salt additions for 10gl batches are 2.x-6.x-8.x grams, so a 0.1g-accurate scale is totally fine.

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  • Thanks for the correction, I wasn't paying attention to spell check. I am aware of the scales but I am avoiding equipment purchases for a little while. If I can't get this to work then I will inevitably have to get one. My current scale only goes down to 1g. I was thinking more on the lines of 50g for 100ml solution.
    – shamann
    Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 23:10
  • You could do a 1:2 solution, sure. My point is more that the higher the ratio, the easier it is to achieve your goal of measuring smaller quantities. At 50g:100mL, if you need eg. 0.5 g of salt, you'll need to measure out 1mL. If you can accurately measure 1mL, then fine. At 1g:100mL, 0.5g is 50mL, a much easier amount to measure, and more forgiving of lower precision.
    – jsled
    Commented Aug 24, 2015 at 15:32
  • I like the idea you suggested of a larger water to salt ratio for easier calculations. I was originally looking to see if this idea was even feasible. I was thinking (not being overly knowledgeable in chemistry) that somehow mass might decrease when desolving. Now I see that it not only is feasible, it could be workable. Thanks.
    – shamann
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 0:16

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