Brunwater trouble

[Erik the Anglophile]

So, I got around to try out brunwater in order to try to get my very mineral deficient and soft water more suitable to brewing.
Entered my water profile and grain bill, desired sparge PH and mash, sparge and batch volumes in the water adjustment tab, but when I chose a water profile, nothing happens in the suggested mineral additions bar.
I have double checked and entered all the data about the water, so what could be wrong?
Edit: understood now you have to manually enter additions in order to get it to match the desired profile, I suppose the "mashing water profile" tab is what I should look at and add my mineral additions?

 

[marc1]

So, I got around to try out brunwater in order to try to get my very mineral deficient and soft water more suitable to brewing.
Entered my water profile and grain bill, desired sparge PH and mash, sparge and batch volumes in the water adjustment tab, but when I chose a water profile, nothing happens in the suggested mineral additions bar.
I have double checked and entered all the data about the water, so what could be wrong?
Edit: understood now you have to manually enter additions in order to get it to match the desired profile, I suppose the "mashing water profile" tab is what I should look at and add my mineral additions?

The mashing water profile row (row 6) is where you look at the effects of your additions in the free version. I don't have the supporter's version, does that have a tab for that?

If you can share some screenshots we can try to help.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I have the free version aswell, figured out what you mention. Now on the other hand mash pH is stuck at 5.0 blank, and the mash pH bar in the grain bill tab says " more alkalinity needed", the brunwater website says it is because some kind of conflict where the roast malt option in the grain bill tab must be renamed to simply roast. I am just a stupid working class grunt, but my better half is an office rat, I'll have her take a look and maybe help me correct it. Can provide screenshots later if I still haven't solved it.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

As you can see I went ham with sodium bicarbonate to see if anything would happen with the mash PH, but no change.
When wifey gets home I'm gonna ask her for help, and try to change the name of the roast malt parameter as suggested and see if some sort of programming conflict is the source of it not calculating the water addition inputs.

 

[WNKbrew]

I just copied all your numbers available to me, I believe your Brunmalt should not be a roast malt, only 130 EBC. Moving it out of roast malt gets me an estimated mash pH of 5.23 with NO baking soda. 0.1g/l BS puts my pH at 5.4, Ca and bicarb still a little low. Don't know if this helps.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I just copied all your numbers available to me, I believe your Brunmalt should not be a roast malt, only 130 EBC. Moving it out of roast malt gets me an estimated mash pH of 5.23 with NO baking soda. 0.1g/l BS puts my pH at 5.4, Ca and bicarb still a little low. Don't know if this helps.

Brunmalt is brown malt.
The problem is the spreadsheet wont calculate PH at all for me, it is stuck at 5 sharp. I read that it is some bug and to adress it you change the name of the option "Roast malt" to just "Roast" in the data manager sheet. Problem is the free version doesn’t seem to have any data manager sheet.

 

[marc1]

Brunmalt is brown malt.
The problem is the spreadsheet wont calculate PH at all for me, it is stuck at 5 sharp. I read that it is some bug and to adress it you change the name of the option "Roast malt" to just "Roast" in the data manager sheet. Problem is the free version doesn’t seem to have any data manager sheet.

Sounds like something is seriously amiss with your sheet - what version are you using?

Maybe @mabrungard can advise.

 

[WNKbrew]

try downloading brunwater again. or send him $10 or $11US for supported version.

 

[marc1]

Or try different software - there's lots out there. I use Mash Made Easy, others seem to like Brewer's Friend. There are quite a few more. Now that you have an understanding of the parameters, it trying different ones shouldn't be too hard to see what works best for you.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I am trying mash made easy right now, seems hella lot user friendly to be honest.

 

[WNKbrew]

I'll have to try it and compare to brunwater. Always looking for easier/efficient, though the two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[marc1]

I am trying mash made easy right now, seems hella lot user friendly to be honest.

I like that it has a lot of things built in - calcium chloride solution concentration by SG and kettle pH adjustment are great.

 

[mabrungard]

Have you set the 'recalculation' to Automatic? Are there blue arrows on other sheets? It does appear that it's not actually operating.