Water Profile - Zymurgy - Kelsey McNair

General Homebrew Discussion
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Looking for some insight.  Have played around with various water profiles with IPA’s and APA’s.  I brewed the Hop Fu recipe of Kelsey McNair, and also used the water profile he discussed in zymurgy… or, so I thought.

Looking back at the profile he discussed - Hop Fu - Album on Imgur

I am just in the habit of assuming that whatever you do to the mash water, you do to the sparge water.  However, when I look back at the interview, it says “He uses RO water for his sparge liquor.”

Does this mean that he treats mash water only to the numbers indicated, adds nothing to the sparge water, effectively cutting all those additions in half as far as the final kettle profile is concerned?

**By the way - I brewed it with the the same additions to both the mash and the sparge water (100% RO for both) and it turned out great.  It is certainly one of the better IPA’s I have brewed.  However, now I am second guessing myself as to rebrewing it and only adding additions to the mash, and nothing to the sparge?

Anyone know for sure?  Thanks.

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The way I read that is that he adjusts the water profile of the mash and sparges with unadulterated RO water. As long as the ph isn’t getting too high during the sparge it’s a fine approach. If you were happy with the results of using the same profile for mash and sparge water then maybe that is the approach you should continue to use.

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Yeah - I was happy with what I did, and will continue to do similar in the future… but now I am curious and will likely have to do it with no additions to the sparge water to satisfy that curiosity.  Like I said - I just sort of assumed the additions were to both because that is the way I am used to thinking.  But it does seem to read otherwise when looking back at it.

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