Lactic acid Brunwater vs Beersmith 3

[Danny2fresh]

Been playing around with Beersmith 3 and comparing the water profile tool to Brunwater. I like the water profile in Beersmith 3 and all the salts, estimated pH, etc match up to Brunwater, however, lactic acid additions are way off.

Brunwater shows 3.5ml
Beersmith shows 7.4ml

If I change beersmith to 3.5ml, it shows my estimated pH to be 5.53. Any ideas?

 

[SEndorf]

Yes....
Use Bru 'n water and ignore Beersmith in this area.
Apparently version 3 did not correct this problem.

 

[aeviaanah]

I am seeing the same results, higher pH in beersmith than bru n water suggests. I trust bru n water..disappointing as this is one of the things I was hoping was improved with the new release.

 

[Upthewazzu]

Depends on your grainbill. Anecdotal evidence tells me that Bru'n Water doesn't account for flaked grains correctly. Maybe Beersmith 3 does?

 

[NTexBrewer]

You have probably checked these things. And I use Brewer's Friend so I'm baseing my experience from this.

For both calculators do you have things set up identical like:

1. Salts going into total water, or just mash water. Same with lactic acid addition.

2. pH of original water, sparge water etc.

3. % concentration of lactic acid

 

[Danny2fresh]

I am seeing the same results, higher pH in beersmith than bru n water suggests. I trust bru n water..disappointing as this is one of the things I was hoping was improved with the new release.

Yea same. I guess I could always use beersmtih for the salt calculations and brunwater for the acid additions. Disappointed and was really looking forward to the updated water profiles in beersmith. Hopefully they fix it in an update.

 

[Danny2fresh]

You have probably checked these things. And I use Brewer's Friend so I'm baseing my experience from this.

For both calculators do you have things set up identical like:

1. Salts going into total water, or just mash water. Same with lactic acid addition.

2. pH of original water, sparge water etc.

3. % concentration of lactic acid

Everything is set up the same. I thought maybe because beersmith always calculates my sparge water low that maybe that was throwing it off but nope. Grain profile, water, salt, everything is the same between the two.

 

[Blazinlow86]

i seem to be having the same issue. beersmith 3 showing double the amount of lactic acid compared to brew n water. hopefully this can be corrected as its really the only reason i upgraded. i wanted a all in one solution........

 

[juggabrew]

Ive been reading through different forums including the BS forums about the inaccuracy of the acid addition. From what I've read I have came to the conclusuion there is no chance the dev of BS3 will ever correct this issue. There is a level of arrogance, stubbornness and thick headedness in his responses to customers that his calculation is better than everyone else's software. Even the tutorials are not very good at explaining/teaching how to use it.

At this point, I don't think there is anyway to adjust the calculation/offset to fit your system, maybe increase the acid concentration to 100% if anything ?. Theres just so many people complaining about this issue and only one person in the world believing nothing is wrong. This is just MO and its frustrating since we've paid to upgrade this software mainly for that reason alone. For ref; my last APA BS3 predicted mash PH of 5.4, came out to 5.25.

Don't get me wrong, I do prefer to use BS(since I've paid for it) and I will continue to work on dialing this in.

 

[rhys333]

I find that Bru'n Water estimates are low, and more acid is required to achieve 5.4. It's still predictable though, as I can expect it to shoot low by 0.25-0.3pH. Brewers Friend by comparison shoots 0.5-1pH high for me as well. Importantly, both are consistent in this regard, so I'm able to nail my desired pH just about every time. I figure that source malts and water play a major role.

 

[Blazinlow86]

So for clarification does Brad agree or disagree that the ph adjustments are off? If there's no plan to correct it I think we should be able to cancel the new subscription and get a refund. It's literally the only reason I upgraded. Can anyone confirm they are NOT having issues using the ph adjustments in bs3? Cheers

 

[Blazinlow86]

Interesting Brad hadn't had anything to say here. I imagine he must browse the forums occasionally. Kinda leads me to believe it is a bs3 issue otherwise you'd think he'd be here to defend or clear it up. Until then I would avoid bs3 for anyone that didnt upgrade. I'll be canceling my subscription unless the creator of the software cares to at least take a few moments to clarify what's his take on this.

 

[petemoss]

I use the lactic acid calcs in BS3 and usually use about 30% less than recommended. I do this because I don't have a pH meter and the amount seems high. I did purchase a meter this morning as Thermoworks has a sitewide sale at the moment. So, I hope to be able to see what is happening in reality on my next brew. Interestingly, in one of Brad's videos, he also says that he uses less than recommended as a starting point and then makes adjustments as needed during the mash.