Beer Tools Pro Vs. Bru'n Water Spreadsheet

[MrHadack]

Hello everyone,

I am using the Bru'n Water spreadsheet to makes sure I have the proper Mash pH for a brown ale. BTP has my recipe coming in at 22 SRM, while Bru'n Water has the same grain bill at 25 SRM. This discrepancy seems to be affecting the mash pH level predictions in the spreadsheet. I try to modify the water chemistry to hit at least 5.2 and I end up with 204 Residual Alkalinity and 309 ppm bicarbonates just to get it up to 5.2. In this 6 gallon batch I have 13.75 total pounds of grain: 13# 2 row, .5# chocolate, .5# caramel 80, and .25# black patent. It just doesn't seem like it would be that acidic. Maybe there is no problem at all, but I thought I'd ask in case.

Any thoughts welcome.

 

[mabrungard]

Off hand, it appears that this grist should not be that acidic. The color calculation is the standard Morey calculation and is only provided to give the brewer a double check on their entries. In this case, it sounds like something has been entered in error. The other indication of error is the seemingly high alkalinity the program is indicating. Double check the color ratings, amounts, and grain-type settings.

 

[MrHadack]

Martin,

Thanks very much for the reply. There was a slight error in the amount of one of the grains, but after fixing that it's still a bit off (though not by much.) I must have missed something else... the spreadsheet was perfect in other cases that I've used it.

By the way, thanks for all your work-- greatly appreciated!

 

[MrHadack]

I found the lingering error: In the spreadsheet I had neglected to select the grain category on the Mash Acidification Calculator. So all my roasted malts were set as "base malt." Making that change caused a BIG difference!