Please verify Bru'n Water Profile

[InspectorJon]

Attached are my local water report and how I entered it into Bru'n Water. I think I have this right.

 

[day_trippr]

Everything matches up, except the pdf shows an "Average Level" for Bicarbonate (mg/L) of 28. "Hardness as CaCO3" matches up with the 17.0 shown, though...

Cheers!

 

[jdauria]

Just two thoughts, most water reports reports Sulfate as Sulfate in Sulfur or SO4-S rather than as regular Sulfate or SO4, so you may want to ask your water department which they are reporting, as if it is S04-S than you need to multiply the 1.2 number by 3 for Bru'n Water.

The other issue is, just like with my town water, yours reports an average for various water tests, not an actual number at a set time. How much does the water fluctuate from those numbers during the course of the year is something you may want to ask the water department. The report is also 2 years old. Because my town reported averages, I sent a water sample to Ward Labs so I could get my current water numbers versus an average of tests over the course of the year. Will say the numbers were pretty similar though, I was hoping they were not as my town water has too much sodium and chloride in it.

 

[mabrungard]

That's definitely 'mountain runoff'. Very low dissolved solids. Should be a great place to start for brewing use.

With the free version of Bru'n Water, a warning will show when the water input values don't produce a balanced ion content. No warning shown above, so it's probably close enough!

 

[InspectorJon]

Thank you for the feedback. The water is mountain run off. I have watched the report since 2017 and the numbers stay pretty consistent. The averages are a little higher in drought years. They do report the annual range that the average comes from. The numbers are all pretty low. My guess is that the higher mineral content numbers occur in the later summer and fall when streams and rivers are fed by spring water rather than surface runoff. We have almost no rain here between May and late October.

 

[InspectorJon]

The reason I asked if I had entered the values correctly is that Bru'n Water predicts pH about .2 lower than the Brewer's Friend calculator. I thought maybe I had input the Alkalinity or Bicarbonate numbers incorrectly. Can the different pH predictions be explained without ruffling feathers?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Among other causes, different pH adjustment advice stems from things such as differing core level presumptions as to the multitude of grains and adjuncts relative acidities with respect to the chosen pH target, or as to mineral induced pH drop, or the use of highly different core and/or ancillary math models, or different presumptions as to grain saturation due to mill-gap (whereby most software simply, albeit likely incorrectly, presume full saturation whereby to liberate full malt acidity regardless of grain crush), or different fuzzy logic (or luck factor) outcomes for certain of recipes whereby multiplicities of errors in presumptions either cancel to a nominally more correct evaluation and proper adjustment advice outcome, or sum to a more off base evaluation and improper adjustment advice outcome (when fuzzy logic error neutralization fails).

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I will add that core research level data for grains aciities, pHDI's, and BC's is beyond amazingly scant, and different sources for such data often disagree wildly as to such valuations even when looking at the very same grain. So when programs seemingly appear capable of applying such critical data to every minute degree for hundreds of retail level available grains and adjuncts and flakes, etc... they are assuredly merely blowing smoke. As they say, you don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle. Or alternately, ... baffle them with bull....

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

The reason I asked if I had entered the values correctly is that Bru'n Water predicts pH about .2 lower than the Brewer's Friend calculator. I thought maybe I had input the Alkalinity or Bicarbonate numbers incorrectly. Can the different pH predictions be explained without ruffling feathers?

A difference of .2 pH is well within anyone's margin of error