Beersmith water profile

[ryanshelton]

Thought id try the water profile on beersmith but its asking how much calcium in the base water. Looked on the report i have from STW and it doesnt give a value.

Im waiting for a reply from them about the other values(albeit at the moment im taking them from the report) but i didnt ask about calcium. Is there any way i can find this out without having to ring them again? Ive worked out i have 116 mg/l CaCO3 if that helps?

 

[Brewedout]

Yes, buy a salifert profi test kit for calcium. Costs less than a fiver and I assure you that the amount of calcium in your water will change from month to month. Definitely worth doing. You might consider getting a hardness/alkalinity test kit too. :thumb:

 

[ryanshelton]

Ah ok, I do have the hardness test kit but wasn't aware I needed a calcium one aswell. Thanks

 

[danb]

If you use grahams water treatment calculator you can guess the calcium figure by getting a balanced reading.

 

[ryanshelton]

If you use grahams water treatment calculator you can guess the calcium figure by getting a balanced reading.

I looked and couldn't see what you meant? Sorry!

 

[danb]

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water/water.html

Enter alkalinity from your test.
Magnesium
Sodium
Sulphate
Chloride

A figure should appear in carbonate after entering alkalinity.
Then there's initial ion balance underneath there.

Adjust your calcium from 0 until the ion balance is pretty much the same and then go with that.

 

[ryanshelton]

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water/water.html

Enter alkalinity from your test.
Magnesium
Sodium
Sulphate
Chloride

A figure should appear in carbonate after entering alkalinity.
Then there's initial ion balance underneath there.

Adjust your calcium from 0 until the ion balance is pretty much the same and then go with that.

Ok done that and get a value of 62. sound about right?

 

[danb]

Mines about 68 mate with alkalinity of 79 mg/l

 

[ryanshelton]

Im still waiting on their reply so think i will ask them for the calcium level aswell to be sure when i ring them tomorrow.

My alkalinity is 116 as tested with the salifert so higher than you but my Calcium is not far of the same so need to check it, thanks for your help mate :

 

[danb]

No worries mate they gave me a much higher figure for calcium but I think that changes with alkalinity.
From yesterday to today my alkalinity has changed 9 mg/l.

 

[ryanshelton]

So what you going to do about the calcium will you test it daily like the alkalinity?

 

[danb]

Just adjust it on that calculator so its balanced.

 

[ryanshelton]

Ah right ok. I'm beginning to slowly understand now lol thanks :)

 

[danb]

I've done nothing else for the last week but try and get my head round it and slowly understand it all.
Now I've retested after using AMS I'm not getting a reduction in alkalinity that it should be. So I don't know if I'd stirred correctly or give it enough time etc. If not, when treating the water I need to try and work out a different amount than the calculators give out.

 

[ryanshelton]

I've noticed different calculators say different amounts of crs etc :s not sure why but to be honest didn't spend long enough playing with them! Maybe try a different calculator? I also noticed in beersmith there is no box for crs/ams additions

 

[danb]

I will just put it in notes on beersmith. Weird though, I get the same amount on thbf calculator, grahams and brewers friend.

 

[Smiddylad]

Hi
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I’m having a few issues trying to determine my total hardness on Grahams Water Treatment Calculator. My local water supplier is United Utilities and it expresses the average total hardness in the water report as 41 mg Ca/l, which is using the same unit as Calcium. I’m trying to figure out which Hardness unit it would fall under in the water calculator, is it CaCO3?

In terms of Alkalinity I am not seeing anything that relates to this in my water report.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Neil

 

[ryanshelton]

Hi
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I’m having a few issues trying to determine my total hardness on Grahams Water Treatment Calculator. My local water supplier is United Utilities and it expresses the average total hardness in the water report as 41 mg Ca/l, which is using the same unit as Calcium. I’m trying to figure out which Hardness unit it would fall under in the water calculator, is it CaCO3?

In terms of Alkalinity I am not seeing anything that relates to this in my water report.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Neil

Get a Salifert kit and test the alkalinity of your water that way. Plenty of hints and tips on how to do it on here :)

 

[Smiddylad]

So don't bother with the total hardness value in the water report and use a Salifert kit to get the alkalinity of your water instead? Fair enough I pick one up at the weekend.
In terms of boiling your water as a carbonate reduction method, whats the best practice for this, do you just bring your liquor to a boil for just 5 minutes and let it cool down or do you have to let it boil for a set amount of time based upon your volume?

Complicated stuff this water business, I miss the days when I didn't have to worry about it :)

 

[rpt]

Water reports from water companies rarely seem to include alkalinity so it's best to get a Salifert test kit for this. I've found mine changes from brew to brew, probably as the water source changes depending on the amount of rainfall. By the way, alkalinity and hardness are not the same thing. Another thing to be aware of is that different things are all expressed as "x ppm as CaCO3" so if you see this in a report it isn't necessarily the amount of calcium carbonate in your water. Also, I see people quote their alkalinity as so many ppm (or mg/L which is equivalent). But you need to quote what measure you are using. For example, 15 ppm as CaCO3. The forum water calculator also allows you to enter alkalinity as x ppm as HCO3.

American programs such as Beersmith often don't have an option for AMS/CRS because they don't have that in the USA.

To reduce alkalinity I think you have to boil for 30 minutes, let it cool and then rack off the water. It also helps to add some calcium chloride or sulphate to help the calcium carbonate precipitate.