A New Mash Chemistry and Brewing Water Calculator

[Kaiser]

We released version 1.4 last night which has a few notable usability enhancements:

- when you sign up for BF (Trial member or paid member) you can see all your saved water treatment records under My Brewing -> My Water Calcs. There you can edit the record to add a name and description

- when saving water water calc inputs you can also add a name and description.

- scrubbed the target water profiles to make them balanced and added a few more. A summary of all target profiles can be seen here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewing-water-target-profiles/

- added the ability to enter salts as g/gal, g/l and mmol/l

- tsp amounts for acids are now shown.

Kai

 

[Inhiding]

This might be part of one of the spreadsheets/calculators out there and I am not seeing it. What I am looking for is if my mash is at 5.8 pH and I want to get it to say 5.4 pH how much acid am I going to use. Surely this has to be an easy calculation. I have checked out brewers friend and it is great. I am going to try it against what I have been using and see how it compares.

but just for simple pH adjustment, after all brewing salts have been added, how much acid to use would be a great calculation.

thanks for all the hard work by everyone!

 

[Kaiser]

but just for simple pH adjustment, after all brewing salts have been added, how much acid to use would be a great calculation.

Yes this is an easy enough calculation to do and others have also requested that. I'll put this on the top of my list.

Kai

 

[Inhiding]

Yes this is an easy enough calculation to do and others have also requested that. I'll put this on the top of my list.

Kai

Thanks Kai!

 

[Hermit]

Yes this is an easy enough calculation to do and others have also requested that. I'll put this on the top of my list.

Kai

I like the way that tool is progressing. Very nice. Thank you.

 

[1MadScientist]

Kai, I have an old Ward Lab report, almost 3 years old now, that I have been using those #'s in EZ. [Total Hardness, CaCO3 is 53, Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 is 22, pH 7.2]

I'm interested in using the "GH & KH Water Report" with the "ppm as CaCO3" on your calculator. Instead of buying the API GH & KH test kit......

Taylor Chemical Water Tests:
Would measuring the Calcium Hardness and Total Alkalinity using the Taylor tests be more accurate? link; http://www.taylortechnologies.com/products_kitinfo.asp?&MarketID=1&KitID=2232
Do these 2 tests equate to the "ppm as CaCO3" on your calculator?

Is measuring "ppm as CaCO3" more accurate than the simple API kit and would it make a difference overall in the calculations?

~Richard

 

[Kaiser]

I'm interested in using the "GH & KH Water Report" with the "ppm as CaCO3" on your calculator. Instead of buying the API GH & KH test kit......

Taylor Chemical Water Tests:
Would measuring the Calcium Hardness and Total Alkalinity using the Taylor tests be more accurate? link; http://www.taylortechnologies.com/products_kitinfo.asp?&MarketID=1&KitID=2232
Do these 2 tests equate to the "ppm as CaCO3" on your calculator?

Is measuring "ppm as CaCO3" more accurate than the simple API kit and would it make a difference overall in the calculations?

~Richard

That kit appears to be measuring only calcium hardness and not the combined hardness of calcium and magnesium. This might be ok given that in most waters magnesium is fairly low (compared to Ca) and its effect on mash pH is also lower.

To use this test you would enter Ca as "ppm as CaCO3" since that is how this test kit reports it and enter Alkalinity the same way. The GH&KH option doesn't work for this kit since it assumes that GH is the combined hardness of Ca and Mg.

Kai

 

[1MadScientist]

Like this, whatever values they end up being?

My old Ward Lab reported Magnesium at 2, Sulfate at 10, Chloride at 9 and Sodium at 6, btw.

 

[1MadScientist]

... and leave the rest blank?

 

[Kaiser]

you can fill in the rest based on the old report. From the looks of it it won't make much of a difference since your ion levels are relatively low and you'll likely be adding salts anyway.

Does the old Ward Labs report list SO4 as Sulfur (S) or as SO4? If I enter you values they balance better with SO4 as mg/l as opposed to "mg/l as S"

Kai

Kai

 

[1MadScientist]

Sulfate, SO4-S = 10

Do I enter that as "mg/l as S"

 

[afr0byte]

Sulfate, SO4-S = 10

Do I enter that as "mg/l as S"

Either that or multiply by 3 and choose mg/l as sulfate

 

[JasontheBeaver]

I think I've found a small issue, correct me if I'm wrong or it has already been addressed.
The ~tsp amounts seem to be off for baking soda and chalk and calcium chloride. For example, for 10g baking soda, it's saying ~1.9tsp but my calculations say 2.3tsp.
For chalk it's saying 10g is ~2.6tsp but I think it's 5.6tsp.
For calcium chloride 10g is ~2.3tsp but I say it's 2.9tsp.

What do you think Kai?