Please test my Simple Water Calculator

[strange-steve]

BTW just ignore the Munich malt, I've noticed even in my all Munich beers it seems to act just like pale malt as far as pH is concerned.

 

[Clint]

Ok thanks.

 

[Clint]

Steve,
Looking further at water profiles for certain styles...
You've suggested profiles for..IPA,PALE and NEIPA.
Now,which would I preferably select when looking to brew American IPA Vs British IPA.

Cheers
Clint

 

[strange-steve]

Steve,
Looking further at water profiles for certain styles...
You've suggested profiles for..IPA,PALE and NEIPA.
Now,which would I preferably select when looking to brew American IPA Vs British IPA.

Cheers
Clint

I would probably use a similar profile for both, possibly a little more chloride for the English one.

 

[Clint]

Thanks.

 

[matt76]

Hey @strange-steve - some thoughts from me on your water calculator vs. BF and the forum one.....

Since getting reasonably to grips with water treatment I've basically fallen into a pattern where I have a pretty good idea what and how much - Gypsum or CaCl; CRS or Lactic Acid etc - I need to add for a given style (rightly or wrongly! ). In fact I can't remember the last time I busted out the Salifert test kits! (probably should re-test actually, just to be sure it hasn't changed much)

I've just brewed an ESB with water profile based on one of your recommendations - for a change from my usual BF water calculator I thought I'd try the forum one (sorry, I hadn't appreciated this wasn't your one!). This surprised me a bit in that:
- It was recommending adding Epsom Salts in addition to Gypsum, but it makes sense if you don't want to overshoot Ca - except I don't have any Epsom salts!
- It also recommended a tiny bit (0.3g!) of NaCl - again, kinda makes sense
- It recommended double the CRS I'd have normally used (20 rather than 10-15ml) - but the pH checks out (actually didn't make a huge difference)

Now having run everything through your calculator retrospectively it's pretty good:
- Gypsum pretty much bang on what I ended up adding (3g)
- Likewise for CRS, 20ml
- You recommend CaCl rather than NaCl but (a) it's a tiny amount and (b) I can see it makes sense
- BF predicted mash pH 5.25, your calculator 5.35, I measured 5.45 - so you were closer in this case

I think the advantage of the way your calculator works (and the forum one) is it tells me what to add to achieve a desired result, unlike BF which just tells me the result of my randomly chosen additions!

All in all I found your calculator pretty intuitive and nicely presented - nice job Personally I'd prefer to list ALL the starting water values and THEN list ALL the target values - but it's a fairly minor point.

Couple of comments/questions:
- When I've read your (and other) articles before it seems like sulphate : chloride ratio is more important. But on a recent Experimental Brewing podcast (Ep 86 "Water The Primer") Drew & Denny were saying, no, actually the absolute amounts of both are important (I've a feeling this came from Martin Brungard). What's your current thinking here?
- Any comments regarding the use of NaCl or Epsom Salts with regard to the final levels of Sodium and Magnesium? Again I think it was the same podcast was advising caution here - kinda makes sense to me, most of us would add salt very sparingly to our food!

Cheers,

Matt

 

[strange-steve]

@matt76 thanks for your feedback it's much appreciated, and good luck with the brew:hat:

When I've read your (and other) articles before it seems like sulphate : chloride ratio is more important. But on a recent Experimental Brewing podcast (Ep 86 "Water The Primer") Drew & Denny were saying, no, actually the absolute amounts of both are important (I've a feeling this came from Martin Brungard). What's your current thinking here?

I think that both play some part to be honest. Maybe at lower levels of overall minerals the ratio might have a bigger impact, but I can't see how 20ppm sulphate and 10ppm chloride could be the same as 200ppm sulphate and 100ppm chloride, despite having the same ratio.

Any comments regarding the use of NaCl or Epsom Salts with regard to the final levels of Sodium and Magnesium? Again I think it was the same podcast was advising caution here - kinda makes sense to me, most of us would add salt very sparingly to our food!

Personally I don't use Epsom salts at all, I'm not convinced magnesium needs to be added to brewing water (unless maybe you're using 100% RO water which I don't recommend, and maybe not even then), and I don't think there's any need to worry about overshooting calcium either (within reason). As for sodium, it's not something I tend to measure, but I will often add a pinch of table salt to the water for dark beers.

I know some people do add magnesium and sodium, but for the sake of simplicity and user-friendliness I decided to leave them out of the calculator.

 

[Clint]

Can this thread be made a sticky please?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Hi Steve
Finally having a go at water treatment. Your program works on my iPhone but not my iPad or PC with windows 10. I used it on my Rice Pilsner but the screen is small. Any ideas to get it working with Windows.
Thanks CC

 

[RichardM]

Hi Steve
Finally having a go at water treatment. Your program works on my iPhone but not my iPad or PC with windows 10. I used it on my Rice Pilsner but the screen is small. Any ideas to get it working with Windows.
Thanks CC

It works fine in Edge on Windows 10 for me

 

[strange-steve]

Hi Steve
Finally having a go at water treatment. Your program works on my iPhone but not my iPad or PC with windows 10. I used it on my Rice Pilsner but the screen is small. Any ideas to get it working with Windows.
Thanks CC

I'm not sure mate, it's working for me on Chrome for Windows as below. In what way is it not working?

 

[Clint]

I had a bit of a ding dong once...not saying it's you...but I think I may have put duff values in somewhere..I blame my glasses...

 

[strange-steve]

I had a bit of a ding dong once...not saying it's you...but I think I may have put duff values in somewhere..I blame my glasses...

Nah there are undoubtedly bugs in it, I'm certainly no programmer!

 

[Saisonator]

Great calculator Steve!
I just worked out a Bitter I brewed using GW calculator and the result was almost identical.
Just 0.5ml less CRS with yours, gypsum the same.
Maybe because yours takes into account the crystal malt.
Just one thing, what sulphate / chloride ratio do you use for English Bitter, I have been calculating to 2:1. It appears GW calculator does the same.
Cheers

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I'm not sure mate, it's working for me on Chrome for Windows as below. In what way is it not working?

I can put the numbers in but not the malts and the calculation button doesn't give any results. It does work on my iPhone 4 though.

 

[strange-steve]

I can put the numbers in but not the malts and the calculation button doesn't give any results. It does work on my iPhone 4 though.

I don't really know why that would be, I'm not an IT expert by any means. What browser are you using on Windows?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Steve
Just downloaded Chrome for Windows and it now works. Thanks for your help.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Steve
Now I’ve got the calculator working I have a question of additions are the values shown the total for the mash volume or g/l and ml/l? I assumed the former. Thanks

 

[strange-steve]

Steve
Now I’ve got the calculator working I have a question of additions are the values shown the total for the mash volume or g/l and ml/l? I assumed the former. Thanks

It actually shows both, at the top of the "calculated values" section it shows the g/l (for the salts at least, I wonder why I didn't include the acid addition here ) and then it shows total additions for the mash and then the sparge below (just the g/l times the volume):

 

[Cheshire Cat]

It actually shows both, at the top of the "calculated values" section it shows the g/l (for the salts at least, I wonder why I didn't include the acid addition here ) and then it shows total additions for the mash and then the sparge below (just the g/l times the volume):

Dooh
I spotted it about 20 minutes after the post, sorry and thanks. The quantity of phosphoric acid additions are minute so I got worried I was under dosing.