New Water Chemistry Calculator - Page 2

**larrybrewer** · 04-02-2009, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 944play

Very nice! Works perfectly on Mac FF3.

Only thing I'd suggest is adding NaCl to the list of salts.

Great, glad it works on Mac.

It would be simple to add to the tool, but brewers need to use kosher salt (non-iodized). I'm not sure how wide spread its use is. For example, I noticed that Palmer left NaCl as a brewing salt out of his book.

I'll make a note of this and see what I find.

steve_flack · 04-03-2009, 03:33 PM

Do you take account of water of crystallisation. Several of the salts used as additives in brewing contain water if they are not in their anhydrous form. This water would affect any concentration calculations.

fifelee · 04-03-2009, 04:05 PM

There is an old water calculator I use called BreWater 3.0 and it lists canning salt. I wonder if that is non-ionized. You can find canning salts in most grocery stores. It also does the calculations for you, but you have to keep clicking the button to refine the numbers until they get close. Love what you have done. You have one stop shopping for all ones beer calculations.

**jpc** · 04-05-2009, 08:09 PM

Larry:

One other request... would it be possible to set a cookie that contains my water profile so I don't have to enter it every time?

-John

**larrybrewer** · 04-10-2009, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve_flack

Do you take account of water of crystallisation. Several of the salts used as additives in brewing contain water if they are not in their anhydrous form. This water would affect any concentration calculations.

True, some solids when kept in humid climates will cyrstallize with H20 they absorb from the atmosphere. This can actually get pretty bad in some cases and throw off certain types of reactions (recalling from my days as a chemistry major). This calculator does not take this into account.

The best solution here is to use fresh brewing salts. I keep my brewing salts in sealed plastic bags. I only buy an ounce or two a year (for $0.80), so I have not noticed crystallization. I use baking soda from SWMBO's baking supplies

This calculator is not exact by any means, it is a guideline. The conversion of grams to teaspoons is also an estimate. I think the main value it gives is alerting brewers before they overshooting a brewing salt level and harm the beer. The chloride sulfate balance I have also found helpful in my own brewing thus far.

**larrybrewer** · 04-10-2009, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpc

Larry:

One other request... would it be possible to set a cookie that contains my water profile so I don't have to enter it every time?

-John

Very insightful John, that was on the list from the original prototype! I wanted to get it launched, then go back and round out some of the functionality after feedback. Give me a couple weeks and it will be there.

As requested earlier I just republished the tool with line 4a to show the diluted water's mineral concentration. I also fixed a bug that was allowing users to input negative source alkalinity (doh!).

**larrybrewer** · 04-10-2009, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fifelee

There is an old water calculator I use called BreWater 3.0 and it lists canning salt. I wonder if that is non-ionized. You can find canning salts in most grocery stores. It also does the calculations for you, but you have to keep clicking the button to refine the numbers until they get close. Love what you have done. You have one stop shopping for all ones beer calculations.

Kosher salt is what I have been seeing in terms of adding to the mash tun. I need to get the numbers on ppm concentrations and tsp per gram. Too bad I sold back most of my chemistry books after I got out of college...

Thanks for the compliment on the calculators! They have been a blast to build. It rewired my brain to understand brewing a lot better. I'm happy to share them with the whole world for free. (No warranties though

).

PROST!

**larrybrewer** · 06-05-2009, 07:01 AM

I got around to updating the water chemistry calculator. Now it includes NaCl (non-iodized salt). I also doubled checked the weights for each salt per tsp and it matches Palmer's data. Have fun!

Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator | Brewer's Friend

**WormBoy** · 07-01-2009, 05:18 PM

Shouldn't the third column from the right be labeled Cl instead of Cr?

**WormBoy** · 07-01-2009, 05:32 PM

This calculator is great, thanks!
One question, potentially very stupid: the water volume (pre-boil field): is everyone calculating your mash and sparge water salt adjustments separately, or do you add your mash and sparge volumes together, calculate your required salt additions, and then just split your salt additions between mash and sparge?