ToastedPenguin

Recipes 

I received my Ward Water report and plugged the numbers into the Bru'n Water spreadhseet.

The Sparge Acidification tab is pretty straight forward, I plugged in the few attributes it asks for and based on the target pH it provides the amount of XYZ to add to the water, in this case Lactic Acid.

I am not quite sure how to use the Water Adjustment tab though.

I selected the desired water profile and I see the minerals change based on that and I also see the matching numbers from what I added in the water report tab in the existing water profile.

I am not going to dilute so I left that blank.

In looking at the Water addition section, I gather I need to manually input the different minerals and acid levels to adjust the water, is this correct? If so, how do I handle a situation such as calcium where the desired profile is 55ppm but my current water is 61ppm?

I have a few minerals such as calcium, magnesium, sodium and bicarbonate where the existing water profile exceeds the target/desired profile.

Edit:
BTW here are the results from the Ward report:

pH 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 350

Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.58

Cations / Anions, me/L 6.8 / 6.6

ppm
Sodium, Na: 35
Potassium, K: 16
Calcium, Ca: 61
Magnesium, Mg: 22
Total Hardness, CaCO3: 244
Nitrate, NO3-N: 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S: 13
Chloride, Cl: 12
Carbonate, CO3: < 1
Bicarbonate, HCO3: 335
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3: 275

Thanks!
David

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Fermenting:
Primary - Nada
Secondary - Nada
Bottled: Black Saison
Kegged & OnTap: Let's Get Smashed -2011 Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Wreck the Halls 2011 Xmas ale/Winter Warmer, Identity Crisis - CDA/BIPA, Aiden's AFTERhisBIRTH - Irish Red Ale

mabrungard

Recipes 

Users should not think that they have to hit those suggested water profile targets exactly. Getting within 5 or 10 ppm either high or low is plenty close. On top of that, the only ions that really matter are calcium and alkalinity. Calcium for yeast health and flocculation performance and alkalinity only to the degree needed to keep the mash pH from dropping too low. After that, a water profile is mostly for flavoring purpose.

If the starting water has a little higher concentrations of any particular ions, it should not be a big deal. If some are much higher, then you need to consider diluting with water with lower concentrations of the high ion(s). RO or distilled water is typically used. in that case.

The sodium and magnesium are slightly high, but not enough to worry about. Almost all the hardness is temporary (high alkalinity). It should be pretty easy to adjust this water with acid to control alkalinity as needed for the particular brew.

Go and brew.

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Martin Brungard, P.E. D.WRE
Carmel, IN
BJCP National
Foam Blowers of Indiana (FBI)
Brewing Water Information at:
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/