Brewfather huge discrepancy compared with BrunWater

[marceloforpresident]

I'm really strugling with the "MASH ACIDIFICATION CALCULATOR" in Brewfather.
I always use Lactic acid 88% and have been using BrunWater sucessfully over the past few years.

in the first recipe that i made i see a huge discrepancy in the amount of lactic acid (3x more) necessary to get my pH around 5.3.
1.5ml on BrunWater
4.7ml on Brewfather.

it was so strange that i opened an issue for thomas to check it out:
Mash Acidification is requiring 3x more lactic acid than i expected, compared with BrunWater spreadsheet (#837) · Issues · Warpkode / Public / Brewfather
I replicate the sabe recipe on my BrunWater spreadsheet and the amount of lactic acid was screamly contrastant. Brewfather is asking to add 4.7ml Brunwater is asking to add 1.5ml...

on both softwares i used the same amount of water, same grist, same resource water and add the same amount of salts.

what makes it even more strange is that i didnt see anyone complaining about that.

Do anyone have any tip?

 

[VikeMan]

Do anyone have any tip?

Yep. There are always differences between the various tools. So my general tip is to measure your mash pH and choose the prediction tool that gets you closest on average. The difference you cited does seem a bit larger than typical. Maybe try a third (and a fourth) tool, and see what they have to say. There are plenty of free choices.

 

[eric19312]

and have been using BrunWater successfully over the past few years.
...
Do anyone have any tip?

When you say successfully was this verified by measurement with a pH meter? If so I'd go with the Bru'n Water prediction while you get the other software sorted. I'd not look for consensus among calculators. Everyone will be different and you will not be any better off.

 

[marceloforpresident]

When you say successfully was this verified by measurement with a pH meter?

Yes, i use an ATC Phmeter (akso ak90).
I was really hoping Brewfather to be more acurate.
The idea of using just one software to manage all brew process its awesome.

Unfortunatelly i will continue to use BrunWater spreadsheet (wich is pretty damn acurate)

 

[eric19312]

I was in same boat with Beersmith for a long time. Last minor revision Brad added a tweak to the formula via a choice of which method to use and my predictions over last 3-4 batches are coming very close to my actuals (last batch I aimed at 5.4 and hit 5.39 ).

That doesn't prove Beersmith's pH estimates are now working or are better or worse than any other software. Like they say even a broken clock is right twice a day. I do brew with nearly 100% light base malt grists and have relatively soft tap water and its possible Beersmith is now just doing a good job with this type of grist and water but I have no idea how it is working for other situations.

As I said I brew with city water. My water is quite soft but my water authority reports indicate a substantial range. I believe they pull from 3-4 different sources to feed my house and it probably varies during the course of the year. Per the report, for my water zone my average hardness last year was 21.6 but over course of 18 reported measurements the range was 9.7 to 52.9. This is why I won't bother with a Ward Labs test. Knowing for sure what my water quality was 2 months ago is not very much help today. I use last year's average and verify pH in the mash with a meter.