Equipment recommendations

[NPi]

As a new years resolution I'm wanting to get into measuring all parts of my brewday, including my water adjustments. Before this point the only adjustments I have made is half a Campden tablet the night before.

Which treatments would you recommend to buy, in which quantities?

What should I look for in a good starter Ph meter?

Any reviews of tilt hydrometers, namely the open source version, not the commercial? I've dropped 2 glass hydrometers in the last 3 months... Do you need to have constant WiFi, or can you poll to a hot-spot on your phone if I came to check on it daily?

Cheers all
Nick

 

[lupinehorror]

i have an ispindel wifi hydrometer. you can buy the parts yourself and make it or buy one already assembled. forum member @gingerneil offers them still i think.
lovely bit of kit. needs a constant wifi connection though for logging (mine is set to produce data every 900 seconds).
can't advise on any of your other requirements i'm afraid. i'm sure many others will.

 

[NPi]

i have an ispindel wifi hydrometer. you can buy the parts yourself and make it or buy one already assembled. forum member @gingerneil offers them still i think.
lovely bit of kit. needs a constant wifi connection though for logging (mine is set to produce data every 900 seconds).
can't advise on any of your other requirements i'm afraid. i'm sure many others will.

That's the version I was thinking of, shame it needs constant WiFi. I may have to try and get a booster sorted.

 

[MmmBeer]

If you're looking into water treatment, then you are entering a minefield. The first thing you will need to do is know your tap water quality. A starting point is your water supplier's website, search for 'Whats my water quality?' and you should be directed to a page where you enter your postcode and it returns a brief report. The main things to find out are the calcium, sulphate and chloride concentrations (all in ppm) and the alkalinity (usually expressed as ppm CaCO3 equivalent), the pH and total hardness are also useful to find out. Any items that can't be found from the supplier's website, you can either test yourself (using an aquarium test kit) or by sending a water sample to a lab for analysis.

When it comes to your brewing water or liquor, you want a mash pH close to 5.2 also water rich in chlorides for malty beers, rich in sulphates for hoppy beers and rich in carbonates for dark beers. I am in a moderately hard water area and generally use calcium sulphate (gypsum), calcium chloride and CRS/AMS (an acid blend for reducing the alkalinity, lactic acid can also be used for this purpose), for soft water areas, bicarbonate of soda can be added to boost the carbonate levels.

For further info see Strange Steve's Beginners guide to water treatment.

 

[fury_tea]

That's the version I was thinking of, shame it needs constant WiFi. I may have to try and get a booster sorted.

I got a WiFi booster and extender for my working from home office. 15 quid from Argos and it turned my wifi from 1 bar/intermittent to full signal at the touch of a button.

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

That's the version I was thinking of, shame it needs constant WiFi. I may have to try and get a booster sorted.

Nick

I have an Ispindel working on my brews if you want to take a look sometime

 

[NPi]

If you're looking into water treatment, then you are entering a minefield. The first thing you will need to do is know your tap water quality. A starting point is your water supplier's website, search for 'Whats my water quality?' and you should be directed to a page where you enter your postcode and it returns a brief report. The main things to find out are the calcium, sulphate and chloride concentrations (all in ppm) and the alkalinity (usually expressed as ppm CaCO3 equivalent), the pH and total hardness are also useful to find out. Any items that can't be found from the supplier's website, you can either test yourself (using an aquarium test kit) or by sending a water sample to a lab for analysis.

When it comes to your brewing water or liquor, you want a mash pH close to 5.2 also water rich in chlorides for malty beers, rich in sulphates for hoppy beers and rich in carbonates for dark beers. I am in a moderately hard water area and generally use calcium sulphate (gypsum), calcium chloride and CRS/AMS (an acid blend for reducing the alkalinity, lactic acid can also be used for this purpose), for soft water areas, bicarbonate of soda can be added to boost the carbonate levels.

For further info see Strange Steve's Beginners guide to water treatment.

Thanks @MmmBeer, I've looked at Strange Steve's calculator before, which convinced me it's not all so complicated. The bit I'm confused about is which acids are better than others, as well as which don't play well together etc.

I've got a free supplier report and plugged it into the calculator, so I know what general treatments I might need. If my mash volume changes, how do I adjust?

 

[NPi]

Nick

I have an Ispindel working on my brews if you want to take a look sometime

Thanks @Obadiah Boondoggle , I may take you up on that, or pester you with questions instead

 

[GeorgieV]

Nick,
Regarding the WiFi and the iSpindel, you can use it in a stand-alone WiFi network. For example with a RaspberryPiZeroW (for less than £10) that runs in access point mode. Once running, you can check it with your smartphone whenever you go within its range. It isn't too difficult to set up.

 

[NPi]

Nick,
Regarding the WiFi and the iSpindel, you can use it in a stand-alone WiFi network. For example with a RaspberryPiZeroW (for less than £10) that runs in access point mode. Once running, you can check it with your smartphone whenever you go within its range. It isn't too difficult to set up.

Sounds complicated, but amazing if it works. I'll get the Ispindel first and see how the signal is. Cheers

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

Thanks @Obadiah Boondoggle , I may take you up on that, or pester you with questions instead

You are welcome to

The calibration can be tricky

 

[MmmBeer]

Thanks @MmmBeer, I've looked at Strange Steve's calculator before, which convinced me it's not all so complicated. The bit I'm confused about is which acids are better than others, as well as which don't play well together etc.

I've got a free supplier report and plugged it into the calculator, so I know what general treatments I might need. If my mash volume changes, how do I adjust?

Lactic acid is more acidic, so you need less, but it has a relatively low taste threshold and can leave a milky taste in your beer. If your water's alkalinity is relatively low (usually soft water areas) you can use either, but lactic will work out more economical, if your water has high alkalinity, then CRS or AMS is better to use.

I run the calculator for each batch I make, somewhere there is a list of suggested Ca, Cl, SO4 concentrations and alkalinity levels for several major beer styles.

 

[NPi]

All

Where do you by you water additions? I've been looking at the usual suspect sites, but nowhere seems to have half of the required parts in stock.

I'm dubious about going down the ebay route, for quality concerns.

 

[Hop_it]

As mentioned already, the issue of water treatment is complicated (unless perhaps if you have a PhD in water chemistry). I have been using a simple calculator available on the link below. It has some stock water profiles built in, and you can also enter your own custom water profile if you need to. I've been using it for several years, and it has served me well. It may not be perfect, but its dead easy to use, and is probably sufficiently accurate for most situations.
It goes without saying that you will also need an accurate balance to measure the small quantities of the various salts etc. I can't recommend anything, but there are plenty on eBay. Just be sure to get something that measures to one decimal place more than you think you need, e.g. down to .01g if you want to measure to 0.1g with reasonably accuracy.

https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water.htmlNB - Be sure to read the accompanying notes.

On the topic of pH meters . . . . I bought a Voltcraft PHT-02 about a year ago. I think that it cost me ~£45.00. It is not difficult to calibrate, and seems to give consistent results. I'm still not 100% convinced that I really need it because the measured pH of my mashes has never been far away from the magic 5.2 But I suppose that it gives me some peace of mind, and it is certainly a big improvement on pH papers. Even the narrow range papers are difficult to read, and appear to lose their sensitivity with age.

 

[trueblue]

Water authority reports are fairly generic so the actual figures they give may not represent what you are getting out of your tap. For around £25 Phoenix Analytical will give you an accurate test. I do this once a year then test the alkalinity and calcium before each brew with salifert tests.