Questions about Beersmith and Water Additions/Mash PH calculations

[GearDaddys]

Hey All,

I've been brewing BIAB for a few years now, and have been producing pretty decent beers (for me anyway).. I like IPA's and brew them the most often, however I live in Baltimore MD, where we have very soft water.. I'm ready to move my brewing up a step and start doing some water adjustments.. I've watched several youtube videos and have a basic understanding of the water profiles in BS.. I'm a little bit murky on some things however.. I'm trying to figure out how to get BS to do my calculations for the salt/mineral additions, as well as forecast my mash ph.. Please bear with me and I'll explain where I am so far..

1. Obtained water report from Ward Labs for our area... (Done)
2. Entered new water profile into BS with the data from this water report.. (Done)
3. Entered water profile from Mike "Tasty" McDole.. His hoppy beer water profile.. (Done)
4. Opened recipe for a practice IPA.. Vol Tab.. Note gallons of water required for BIAB.. (10.16g)
5. Opened water profile tool.. Entered gallons of water, My local water profile, as well as target profile (Tasty's).. Hit "Match Profile"

Now for my questions:

I see the calculations for additions on the water profile page.. Should I copy these down, and enter them as ingredients on the ingredients page, or will one of the "save" buttons on the water page propogate the changes automatically?

For the purposes of mash PH, I see on the mash tab the fields for estimated Mash Ph, does not reflect my local water profile.. It seems that I can add 'water' to the recipe (Ingredients list) and choose my profile.. This appears to change this field.. Is this the correct way to do this, and if so, do I need to add a specific quantity of water? Not sure if I need to add 10.16 in this case, or will any volume of water make the Ph forecast calculations correct?

Lastly, and thanks for taking the time to read all of this.. How far into the mash do you guys take a PH reading? Obviously you want to have the PH correct during the mash, so I'm assuming that you do it towards the beginning, but I'm also assuming it takes the mash some time for the PH to balance out to where it's going to stabilize.. I'd imagine reading to early could cause issues if you overshoot on a correction?

Thanks again very much in advance..

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Additions or subtractions to the mash water quantity will change the mash pH.

How do you know that the predicted mash pH of this software (which I admittedly have never used) does not (in the big picture of things related to mash pH) reflect your local water profile?

Best to take the pH reading at 20 minutes, but if you are adjusting on the fly, do it at 10 minutes. Either way, by the time you cool down the sample and make the adjustment, the starch to sugar conversion will likely be about 80% to perhaps even 100% complete already. Such pH measurements are therefore best taken so you can adjust the next batch, not the current batch. And if that is the goal, then a sample at 20 minutes should be preferred.

 

[GearDaddys]

Ok.. thanks for the info on when to sample.. Beersmith does it's PH predictions using your local water profile, if you've set up a water profile for your local conditions.. In my case, I have a Ward Labs report for our water.. So I know what I'm starting with..

 

[Oginme]

The estimated mash pH within the recipe reflects the effect of the malts in addition to your water.

 

[GearDaddys]

Oginme,

Yes, I understand that BS will do the calculations to predict mash ph, considering the effects of the grain bill, any water additions, as well as my water source.. That I get.. My question is specifically about the mechanics of getting BS to do these calculations..

In the recipe tab, do I need to add my water profile to the list of ingredients? If so, does the quantity matter? Do I add the volume that is called for in the volume tab? How about adding the salts from the water profile tool? Do you manualy add them into the recipe as well, or when you run the tool, are they supposed to move over on their own?

I love BS, but while it may be intuitive to some, it's not for me.. I'm trying to work through the specific mechanics of how specifically to get BS to give me an estimated PH, based on my grain bill, chosen water profile, and additions that I've made based on the suggestion of the water tool..

Thanks very much!

-john

 

[Oginme]

John,

I've tried it both ways -- (1) adding the salts to the recipe and (2) creating my water profile with salt additions and adding this to the recipe. I have not seen much of a difference, most probably because I am in New England and my water is pretty close to RO water as it is.

I've settled on adding the salt additions to the recipe so that when I prep my water the day before, I have the salt additions spelled out for me.