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Few questions about water adjustments and Beersmith..

geardaddys

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Hey All,

  I've been brewing BIAB for a few years now, and have been producing pretty decent beers (for me anyway).. I like IPA's and brew them the most often, however I live in Baltimore MD, where we have very soft water.. I'm ready to move my brewing up a step and start doing some water adjustments.. I've watched several youtube videos and have a basic understanding of the water profiles in BS.. I'm a little bit murky on some things however.. I'm trying to figure out how to get BS to do my calculations for the salt/mineral additions, as well as forecast my mash ph.. Please bear with me and I'll explain where I am so far..

1. Obtained water report from Ward Labs for our area... (Done)
2. Entered new water profile into BS with the data from this water report.. (Done)
3. Entered water profile from Mike "Tasty" McDole.. His hoppy beer water profile.. (Done)
4.  Opened recipe for a practice IPA.. Vol Tab.. Note gallons of water required for BIAB.. (10.16g)
5.  Opened water profile tool.. Entered gallons of water, My local water profile, as well as target profile (Tasty's).. Hit "Match Profile"

Now for my questions:

I see the calculations for additions on the water profile page.. Should I copy these down, and enter them as ingredients on the ingredients page, or will one of the "save" buttons on the water page propogate the changes automatically?

For the purposes of mash PH, I see on the mash tab the fields for estimated Mash Ph, does not reflect my local water profile.. It seems that I can add 'water' to the recipe (Ingredients list) and choose my profile.. This appears to change this field.. Is this the correct way to do this, and if so, do I need to add a specific quantity of water? Not sure if I need to add 10.16 in this case, or will any volume of water make the Ph forecast calculations correct?

Lastly, and thanks for taking the time to read all of this.. How far into the mash do you guys take a PH reading? Obviously you want to have the PH correct during the mash, so I'm assuming that you do it towards the beginning, but I'm also assuming it takes the mash some time for the PH to balance out to where it's going to stabilize.. I'd imagine reading to early could cause issues if you overshoot on a correction?

Thanks again very much in advance..

John
 
geardaddys said:
I see the calculations for additions on the water profile page.. Should I copy these down, and enter them as ingredients on the ingredients page, or will one of the "save" buttons on the water page propogate the changes automatically?

When you save a water profile, you'll need to give the additions a unique name. You then add the profile to the ingredients.

I'd strongly advise that you add the minerals at the last possible moment because changes to volumes or other items in the list will not change the minerals. That calculation is made only at the time you add the water profile.

For the purposes of mash PH, I see on the mash tab the fields for estimated Mash Ph, does not reflect my local water profile.. It seems that I can add 'water' to the recipe (Ingredients list) and choose my profile.. This appears to change this field..

The mash pH estimate is based only on the water profile and grain to water ratio of the mash. It doesn't account for acidulated malt, acid additions or several other factors that can change pH.

Unfortunately, water is the weakest part of BeerSmith. It's improved with this current version (2.3.x) but is still a work in progress. There are third party applications that do a more comprehensive job, but they evolve, too.
 
geardaddys said:
Now for my questions:

How far into the mash do you guys take a PH reading? Obviously you want to have the PH correct during the mash, so I'm assuming that you do it towards the beginning, but I'm also assuming it takes the mash some time for the PH to balance out to where it's going to stabilize.. I'd imagine reading to early could cause issues if you overshoot on a correction?

Thanks again very much in advance..

John

Hi John,

In regards to your question on when to take the mash PH reading. I usually take this within the first 5mins or so, for my grainfather, but closer to 10 mins as arctic78 suggests would suit most, as the grains adjust the ph levels considerbaly, more or less, dependant on what type of beer your making. Then adjust with either acidulated malt, or lactic acid if necessary, or if too low a touch (i mean a touch, a little goes a long way) of some sodium bicarbonate to raise ph. Wait a few minutes then check reading again.

Hope that helps...cheers, Kev.
 
I usually take this within the first 4-5mins,

I may have this wrong but 4-5 mins into to the mash seems awfully quick to take a pH reading . I was to the understanding that 10-15min is more appropriate so the mash has time to stabilise and your reading is more accurate ???
 
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