BeerSmith Water Profile

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GroovePuppy

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Used BeerSmith for my Extract batches. I'm about to try AG and I created my local water profile. Now what? How do I get my recipes to take it into account or to tell me if it's bad?
 
Used BeerSmith for my Extract batches. I'm about to try AG and I created my local water profile. Now what? How do I get my recipes to take it into account or to tell me if it's bad?

In the recipe view mode of Beersmith you will see a list of items to, "add grain/extract, add hops..." there is listed water. Hit that button and if you added your water to the database it will show up in the list and you can choose it.

Now, I am uncertain if beersmith will tell you if it is, "bad" as you would like it to do though.
 
Yeah, I tried adding it as an ingredient but that doesn't seem to apply to the mash. It certainly doesn't cause anything to change. Maybe I'm misunderstanding and BeerSmith only takes it so I can make my water match regions I'm trying to emulate. I guess I hoped it would flag if my water profile was likely to affect my beer style.
 
Yeah, I tried adding it as an ingredient but that doesn't seem to apply to the mash. It certainly doesn't cause anything to change. Maybe I'm misunderstanding and BeerSmith only takes it so I can make my water match regions I'm trying to emulate. I guess I hoped it would flag if my water profile was likely to affect my beer style.

Go into tools, then water profile, then enter your values under base water(local water). You then must choose a target water. Then adjust the ingredients(minerals/salts) to match(as close as possible) the target water. Target water is a problem though. The program has brewing cities water profile but we don't know what breweries do to their water. You need to enter "new water profiles" of different beer styles. I found these profiles and have entered them to adjust my local water.
Homebrewing and water quality

check out Palmers chap 15 to understand water profiles.
 
I used the nomograph in the back page of How To Brew and I'll add a small amount of Gypsum since my next batch is really light. I just hoped BeerSmith would have a similarly useful tool for calculating mash PH. I want to know what to do based on beer style not on a city that happens to make that beer style.
 
I know what you mean, I'd like to see palmer or Jamil write a chapter saying "the ideal water for an american IPA is xxx" and so on. Obviously there is no single best answer bar none but it would be a starting point.
 
I used the nomograph in the back page of How To Brew and I'll add a small amount of Gypsum since my next batch is really light. I just hoped BeerSmith would have a similarly useful tool for calculating mash PH. I want to know what to do based on beer style not on a city that happens to make that beer style.

I tried gypsum twice. Both times my beer turned out with a chalky profile that iritated me to no end. I use citric acid to adjust mash PH. Have you used gypsum before and did your beer have a chalky texture?
 
My Nut Brown recipe from the LHBS called for 1/2tsp Gypsum, 1/2 tsp Chalk and 1/4 tsp of Calcium Chloride. Apparently it's their baseline for fixing the local water profile. Two problems though. 1) My recipe was an extract so the salts were a waste of time and money, and 2) if they'd explained their reasons to me they'd have found out I'm on a different water source!!!!

I threw just shy of 1 tsp of Gypsum into my Bitter on Sunday as per John Palmer's instructions. No chalkiness to either the Nut Brown or the wort from Sunday.
 
I've found that my beers with treated water come out fantastic, although at first I doubted because there was a bitterness in the finish on the back of the palate. As it turns out, that ages out rather quickly.
 
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