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Water Report Doesn't Fit Beersmith

iamthefly

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Hi, (1st post!)

I'm new to the Beersmith software and I have a water report From Scottish Water for my supply, but some of the things in it don't fit into Beersmith the way it wants them to.

I have "soft water with a level of around 10mg/l Calcium Carbonate".

Beersmith wants to know Calcium and Carbonate separately. Now I know that both of those have to be in a compound, probably with eachother, but what actual number should I put into each of the Beersmith fields, 10ppm for each?

The mean pH is 7.7

Also they don't test for Magnesium, but there doesn't seem to be much of anything in my water so is it ok to leave it blank?

Thanks,
iamthefly
 
Greetings iamthefly - I am certainly no water expert, but I can tell you that if your water supply is actually "soft", than there is most likely little or no magnesium and calcium in the water supply.  The function of soft water is to remove these two ions.

I too have some confusion around the subject of water.  I even went the extent of reading the book by John Palmer about water.  Water is a very complicated subject.  And while I approve of BS including many water tools, it still has a long way to go to be all inclusive.

I, personally, have been using Bru n Water for my water needs.  It too is a bit complicated, but once it's set up, it works nice.  It's in a spreadsheet (MS Excel) format.  There is a free usable download available and for a very modest fee, you can upgrade to the full version.

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

Hope this helps!

 
Hello and Greetings,

I also have very soft water in North Wales, Calcium levels of approx 27ppm. Not sure what u mean about the mean pH.....is this your Raw Liquor? If so, ignore water pH it has no bearing on mash pH or any other pH in the brewing process. I add a small quantity of DWB to the dry Malt prior to the mash, this is a formulated blend of minerals. The calcium ions are what aid the phosphates in the mash to alter the pH. By adding the correct amount of calcium the mash will be buffered enough to lower the pH down to the recommended mash range of 5.1 to 5.3. I measured my mash pH and it was spot on at 5.2. Mash pH is an important part of the brewing process.....well in my view  ;)

For Bitters, IPA's, and Pale Ales, the main ions and the approx target range of Theoretical Wort Values Pre Fermentation are: Nitrate (0 - 50 ppm), Calcium (180 - 220), Magnesium ( 0 - 50), Chloride (150 - 250), Sulphate (250 - 450) and Alkalinity as CaCO3 (20 - 60). With my very soft water the Alkalinity as CaCO3 is about 8ppm a lot lower than the target but it wont affect the beer that is made, I could add Na2CO3 to bring this up to target range but the quantities would be very small and not worth it.

What I have done is sent a sample of my water for analysis and (see the excellent BrewUK website and Water Analysis) it costs about ?29 and I had results back for all types of beers in addition to what I have mentioned above: Stouts/porters/Milds and Lagers/Pilsners. I think its well worth it.

I am not sure how effective the water profile is in BeerSmith. What I did is take the Burton type of water profile that is listed in Beer smith and used this a template for my water. But I still don't know if it matters in the grand scheme of things in BeerSmith...

Hope I haven't confused you... ;D

Cheers
Ian



 
KellerBrauer said:
...I, personally, have been using Bru n Water for my water needs.

Nothing against BS' water tool, I personally do not use it, never tried, actually, so I do not know anything about it. But if it doesn't accept some data points that you feel are important to you, then I certainly can agree with KellerBrauer's recommendation for Bru'n Water - I have used it for a couple of years now. You can donate a small amount of $$$ (I think I did $20 a couple of years ago) and Martin will give you updated versions from time to time - great support from a true expert in brewing water.
 
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