Oginme said:
While I cannot say with any certainty, I have tested my water before and after addition of water salts (CaCl2, MgSO4, CaSO4) and the numbers seem to align with CaCl2 * 6H2O, which is what I have on hand for CaCl2. I am using the LaMotte kit and the addition level and accuracy of the test is good enough to rule out the lower hydrated forms.
The calculations are based upon the paper I have attached and which Brad has referred to in his blog.
Hi.
Yes, I just used Excel to do the calculations. I included the waters of hydration and the numbers worked out the same, so Beersmith does take that into account.
But, when I calculated ppm for CaCl2 I got different numbers for some reason. I'm basing it off anhydrous calcium chloride, which is what I have.
Just looking at the numbers in Beersmith, it does look like the proportion of chloride to calcium is indeed 2, so I guess it's just a typo.
But, I wonder why I'm getting different numbers.
So I just used molar masses of everything:
CaCl2 = 110.98 g/mol
Ca2+ = 40.08
Cl- = 35.45
So per gram of salt, the number of mg of ion would be:
Ca2+ = (40.08/110.98)*1000 = 361.1 mg
Cl- = (35.45*2/110.98)*1000 = 638.9 mg
Then, mg/L (ppm) for every gram added to every gallon (3.7854 L) would be:
Ca2+ = 361.1/3.7854 = 95.39 ppm
Cl- = 638.9/3.7854 = 168.8 ppm
Please correct this if it's wrong!
But when I enter 1 gram of salt for 1 gallon of water in Brewsmith it gives:
Ca2+ = 72.0 ppm
Cl- = 127.4 ppm
To me it seems like this is the result of a hydrate salt of calcium chloride. I have anhydrous and that's the only way I've seen it.
You say you have a hexahydrate form? I don't. Mine is anhydrous and it becomes a puddle of mush if you let it sit out in humid air for very long because it sucks up so much water from the atmosphere, so it's hard to imagine a hydrate salt with a definite number of waters.
Well, anyway, I guess you helped me figure it out. I didn't realize it came as a hexahydrate.
It would be nice if Beersmith specified this within the tool somehow. Also, it would be nice to be able to use different forms of each salt, because even though Epsom salt is most common, sometimes you see anhydrous MgSO4 and it would be nice if Beersmith allowed you to pick which form you have.