The NEW Grainfather Water Profile Tool

[Lurker]

Happy New Year! Im curious if anyone else is using the new water profile tool in the Grainfather App. I brewed 21 batches with my Grainfather in 2020 and absolutely loved it. I enter all my recipes into their app with great success. Now they have a "beta" version of water chemistry calculator built right in! It seems super amazing and really simple to use so far. I have entered my ward lab reports and for a recipe it lets you choose the target profile based on style of bee entered. My well water tastes amazing so in till now I haven't messed much with water chemistry except for when I brew a NEIPA.

So I guess my basic questions are: Is anyone else using this tool and what do you think? And...My issue is that my all my minerals seem so low the app has trouble balancing them enough to fit certain styles. My Water report is below f anyone feels ambitious in analyzing it. Cheers and Happy New Year! Erik

pH 6.5
Sodium, Na 4
Potassium, K 2
Calcium, Ca 6.6
Magnesium, Mg 5
Total Hardness, CaCO3 38
Nitrate, NO3-N 2.0 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 2
Chloride, Cl 3
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 26
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 21
Total Phosphorus, P 0.01
Total Iron, Fe < 0.01

 

[Jag75]

Wow I use the app but didn't realize there was a water profile section

 

[Lurker]

Its pretty awesome if I could just get my basic water understood. Give it a try...open one of your recipes in the app and click the water profile on the right. You can play around with it then when ready it will add all your salts right to the recipe! Its awesome! I was thinking this thread should be in the general discussion...but I couldn't figure out how to move it once I put it in beginners forum by accident?

 

[Lurker]

Its pretty awesome if I could just get my basic water understood. Give it a try...open one of your recipes in the app and click the water profile on the right. You can play around with it then when ready it will add all your salts right to the recipe! Its awesome! I was thinking this thread should be in the general discussion...but I couldn't figure out how to move it once I put it in beginners forum by accident?

 

[McKnuckle]

Your water is close to blank slate RO quality, with extremely low mineral concentrations, and only a very small amount of alkalinity. But you probably can tell that already.

 

[Lurker]

Hi, I could tell that it seemed to be within all tolerances. Mainly because it tastes so good! Here is a screenshot when I try to use my water for a NEIPA. Even with their suggested amounts there are still some salts that are out of the acceptable green range? Hmmm ...Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[McKnuckle]

Wow, those are some amazingly high additions. I brew 2.5 gallons of beer with a full volume mash, so maybe 15 liters (4 gallons) of water are used. I add all salts to the full volume of water. My additions of CaCl and gypsum are always under 3 grams, usually half that, typically between 1-2g depending on style and pH requirements.

2.55 oz. of CaCl, as stated on that list, is over 72 grams! You'd need to be making 30x the batch size that I make for that to be in the same general range.

By the way, I strongly suggest using grams and a scale capable of resolving to 0.1 grams to measure salts.

 

[Jag75]

I'm gonna have to check it out . That is a ton of gypsum . I use Bru N Water for my water profiles . I'll plug one in to see if its relatively close .

 

[Lurker]

I 100% agree. I emailed GF to ask for help. Im thinking it may just be an issue with units of measurement. Im curious what they have to say. It cant be right in Ounces! Do those additions look like they ar ein the ballpark if they were in grams? Thx E

 

[McKnuckle]

Does this tool have a unit selection option? If so, set it to metric and see what it looks like. I think the values are too low for grams, and way too high for ounces.

You might also play with it - zero out the sparge additions completely. Then put "1" in for gypsum and CaCl in the mash. Let's see what the concentrations show. How much water is being calculated here?

 

[Lurker]

Hi, Thansk for your input...I clicked around and found no way to change the unit measurement. I will have to look at water volumes when I get home. It was for a 5 gallon batch though so im guessing strike water was around 5.5 gallons and sparge probably around 2.25?

 

[Malty Matt]

Hi, I could tell that it seemed to be within all tolerances. Mainly because it tastes so good! Here is a screenshot when I try to use my water for a NEIPA. Even with their suggested amounts there are still some salts that are out of the acceptable green range? Hmmm ...Thanks for your thoughts!View attachment 713087View attachment 713087

Long time reader, first time poster here.

I was burned by this problem too. Being new to salt additions, I didn't question the suggested amounts. Imagine my surprise when tasting the mash and sparge water. I went back into the Grainfather recipe and clicked the "Calculate" button again. Poof! The amounts updated. One example went from 0.23 to 0.047. WTH! The odd thing is when you apply those additions to your recipe the unit of measurement doesn't carry over. It's "oz" in the calculator but changes to "each" in the recipe. The same goes for lactic acid. Fl oz in the calculator changes to each in the recipe. Also, grams is only an option after choosing Metric for your preferred unit type under Preferences.

 

[Pkrd]

Is there a way to make the mash and the spare water the same. Or am I just being lazy?