Water Profile + Campden Tablet

I'm just starting out with water profiles in BeerSmith so please excuse my ignorance.

I have an accurate Water Profile created from a lab sample for the water in my area.

I normally use 1/2 a Campden tablet for each batch to eliminate Chlorine from the water.

How can I reflect this in my Water Profile? Is setting the "Chloride" field to 0 appropriate?

Adding a Campden tablet to the Recipe doesn't seem to have any effect on any values in the Water tab.

You are correct. BeerSmith3 will not add sodium and sulfate to the water profile from campden additions. The only things that affect water in BeerSmith3 are the additions on the water tab (or in the water profile tool): gypsum, table salt, epsom salt, calcium chloride, baking soda and chalk. Calcium hydroxide (pickling lime) is something that many brewers use and would like to see added, as well as the contributions from campden. BeerSmith3 does a much better job of dealing with water than BeerSmith2, but it sill has serious shortcomings. Bru'nWater can properly deal with campden and calcium hydroxide, and I would recommend using it.
https://www.brunwater.com/

--GF

x3la said:

I normally use 1/2 a Campden tablet for each batch to eliminate Chlorine from the water.

Click to expand...

The amount of campden used (there are two types, soduim metabisulfite and potassuim metabisulfite) is dependent on the amount of chlorine or chloromine in your water.

As a rule of thumb, you get 1:1 mg/l chloride from chlorine or chloromine. You get about 1.25:1 sulfate in the same retaction. Excess metabisulfate is converted into sulfur dioxide (the kill power for wine making) which is reduced into sulfate in the mash and/or boiled off in standing hot water.

Most municipalities use about 3 mg/l chlorine. This is a very, very small amount of chloride and sulfate to account for. It's probably lost in the noise of water mineral variations during the year and by minor variations in your water use per batch. If you're adding minerals, then all bets are off because there is such a wide target range for any water profile. It's your call to decide if chasing the exact number is worth the extra tracking and record keeping.