Water Chemistry, is there an online plug and play calculator?

[brian320fo]

Brian I really appreciate you taking your time to help me.
Grain Bill:
5.25 lbs of Rahr 2-Row Malt
4.25 lbs of Rahr white Wheat
1lb Flaked Oats

My volume is 7.25 gallons with no sparging. Just the BIAB method with squeezing the Bag at mash out(170).

Thanks!

No problem! Here is what I come up with. I made some assumptions like IBUs, SRM etc. but the basics won't change.

I put your recipe into BeerSmith and it looks something like this.



The "Samson's" line for water in BeerSmith contains your water profile that I got from your attachment. This is the same water profile I put into the water calculator on phantomwingbrew.com. Note: The Sulfate content from Ward Labs is listed as SO4-S. This is a different measurement than we use for brewing. To get the proper SO4 ppm you have to multiply this number (in your case 8) by 3. So the input for Sulfate should be 24. The predicted pH, based solely on your water profile and grain bill, is 5.87. This is the value that goes into the Est. Mash pH box in the water calculator.



The output I get is as follows:



My technique is to start heating up the water. As it's heating I measure out the salts and add them to the water. When the water gets to about 100* I do a good stir to make sure all the salts are dissolved and mixed thoroughly. Then I measure out the acid and add that in. I do it this way because I use phosphoric acid and it can cause the calcium to precipitate if not done correctly. For any other acid type this is not a problem but other acids can have flavor impacts. When this is all done and the water temp gets to mash temp I do another stir then mash in.

There's a lot of information about water on the phantomwingbrew.com website that is useful for brewers at this stage. Let me know if any of it is confusing so I can edit it and clear it up.

Good luck!

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

This is wonderful! I followed the math as well and I am definitely going to save this for my next batch.
could I ask, out of all 8 of those different acids...which one do you prefer out of them? Does it depend on the beer you're brewing or just preference?

Thank you!

There is of course one prime thing to consider when using any acid, and that is your own safety. 75% and 85% Phosphoric Acid are extremely dangerous to handle, and even at 30% it gives me pause for trepidation. Ditto for CRS (AMS). YMMV

As dangerous as it assuredly is, to me at least, 80% or 88% Lactic Acid appears to be noticeably less hazardous. YMMV

The next consideration is as to whether or not any acid is truly classified as food grade. I even question some acids that are touted to be food grade as to their validity in making this claim. Contaminants, particularly of the heavy metals variety come to mind here. Over time heavy metals exposure in even minute amounts for such metals as Lead and Cadmium (plus others) can seriously mess you up. Use due diligence.

 

[Samson's Brew&Ski]

No problem! Here is what I come up with. I made some assumptions like IBUs, SRM etc. but the basics won't change.

I put your recipe into BeerSmith and it looks something like this.

View attachment 718711

The "Samson's" line for water in BeerSmith contains your water profile that I got from your attachment. This is the same water profile I put into the water calculator on phantomwingbrew.com. Note: The Sulfate content from Ward Labs is listed as SO4-S. This is a different measurement than we use for brewing. To get the proper SO4 ppm you have to multiply this number (in your case 8) by 3. So the input for Sulfate should be 24. The predicted pH, based solely on your water profile and grain bill, is 5.87. This is the value that goes into the Est. Mash pH box in the water calculator.

View attachment 718712

The output I get is as follows:

View attachment 718713

My technique is to start heating up the water. As it's heating I measure out the salts and add them to the water. When the water gets to about 100* I do a good stir to make sure all the salts are dissolved and mixed thoroughly. Then I measure out the acid and add that in. I do it this way because I use phosphoric acid and it can cause the calcium to precipitate if not done correctly. For any other acid type this is not a problem but other acids can have flavor impacts. When this is all done and the water temp gets to mash temp I do another stir then mash in.

There's a lot of information about water on the phantomwingbrew.com website that is useful for brewers at this stage. Let me know if any of it is confusing so I can edit it and clear it up.

Good luck!

thank you, I followed this for my brew day and will continue with your website for future brews. Ill read up on it and let you know if I have any questions! thanks