New to brewing RO water

[Mark3885]

I just put in an order with Buckeye Hydro for a premium RO system,100 GPD . Now I need to learn water chemistry . The past I have used tap water, then moved to the country with a well and softener, not good to brew with. I’m looking for a brewing program that is easy to use for RO Water additions and can give me the expected mash ph. I never bothered with ph because my beer always came out good to great . I used the test strips , but could never alter my ph to make a difference. Time to step it up a bit . I currently use Brewersfriend but it doesn’t give me an expected ph for my grain bill. Thanks for the help.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I started with the free version of Bru'n Water and after I put in my own 100gpd RO system a couple of years later I bought the paid version. I wouldn't brew without it

The author has an extensive discussion on water here: General 5 | Bru'n Water
And the spreadsheet has a similar presentation built in on why and how to use the program...

Cheers!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I currently use Brewersfriend but it doesn’t give me an expected ph for my grain bill.

I use this page (link) in Brewer's Friend to estimate pH.

 

[Sammy86]

Ill second @day_trippr for Bru'n Water. I paid for it off the bat and never brew without it!

 

[mabrungard]

pH strips are useless in brewing, so it's not a surprise that you didn't see a difference on the strips. Moving to RO water could be a very good start for brewing, if your tap water is too mineralized. But RO water isn't a panacea. There is still likely to be a need to adjust that water to better fit your brew. Brewing water chemistry adjustments don't have to be perfect, but some minor changes can make a big difference in some beer styles.

Congratulations for taking a step to better beer with the RO system.

 

[The Barking Dog]

I also just started brewing with RO water and I'm not much for recurring subscription costs. So I too use Bru'n Water from Martin. I find that it can be overwhelming at first but with the information that Martin has in the spreadsheet and the FAQ page on his website, it's rather simple. Every time I ran into an issue, the solution was on the FAQ page.

The pH meter I got off of Amazon wasn't all that expensive and it also reads TDS so that's helpful. I'll trend TDS overtime to determine when the RO system filters need to be replaced.

Good luck!

 

[bwible]

Theres another free one called EZ Water calculator that I use.

https://ezwatercalculator.com/

 

[strataron]

Is the premium Brewfather app good for water additions?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

My 'Mash Made Easy' mash pH assistant (plus a whole lot more) spreadsheet is always both free and complete. No teaser leading to a pay version. But it is intended for computer use, and not use with a phone.

 

[k-daddy]

Is the premium Brewfather app good for water additions?

I use it, works well. One thing I’ve noticed is that after clicking “auto” to calculate the needed water additions using RO water as the source, the results rarely match the “target profile” numbers. I get fairly close and figure that it’s simply not a 100% precise calculation. FYI, I use the default water addition settings in Brewfather.