Why does this have to be so confusing!?

[Sadfield]

none of the replies you got help you. I’ve got a water calculator produced by a former forum member. Tell me your local profile, grain bill, mash and sparge volumes and what you’re brewing and I will calculate it for you.

How's doing it for them going to help them?

@leon, @Buffers brewery and @Old Fart At Play have pointed them to a simpler, more intuitive calculators that will do what they want. As have others on their other thread.

Input source profile, target profile*, volume to be treated. Add all the resultant salt additions to water, then mash and sparge.

* It needs to be a profile with a high chloride level to achieve the OP's objective of enhancing mouthfeel such as the one @matt76 linked to.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/pages/water-calculator/
https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water.html

 

[samale]

none of the replies you got help you. I’ve got a water calculator produced by a former forum member. Tell me your local profile, grain bill, mash and sparge volumes and what you’re brewing and I will calculate it for you.

Is that Steve's calculator, It stopped working for me a long time ago

 

[Monkhouse]

How's doing it for them going to help them?

@leon, @Buffers brewery and @Old Fart At Play have pointed them to a simpler, more intuitive calculators that will do what they want. As have others on their other thread.

Input source profile, target profile*, volume to be treated. Add all the resultant salt additions to water, then mash and sparge.

* It needs to be a profile with a high chloride level to achieve the OP's objective of enhancing mouthfeel such as the one @matt76 linked to.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/pages/water-calculator/
https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water.html

Hi mate, I did use this forums water calculator- that’s what initially got me into thinking about doing additions in the first place. My problem was that I shared the results of the calculator in this forum asking if it looked right and everyone had a different opinion. Mainly that the calcium chloride levels (19g) were far too high and the table salt (6g) also was too high even with my soft water.
I got so many responses about the results being just wrong that I kind of gave up and the last stout that I did a couple of weeks ago I ended up scrapping the idea of salt additions altogether.
So yeah I have tried, multiple times actually on different calculators and read several articles regarding it and that’s what’s brought me back here.

 

[Monkhouse]

none of the replies you got help you. I’ve got a water calculator produced by a former forum member. Tell me your local profile, grain bill, mash and sparge volumes and what you’re brewing and I will calculate it for you.

Thanks allot that’s v kind, I’ll pm u

 

[Sadfield]

I'd always favour the calculator over forum opinions, it's devoid of personal bias.

 

[Monkhouse]

I'd always favour the calculator over forum opinions, it's devoid of personal bias.

that is a very fair point!

 

[Monkhouse]

I’ve have another look at the basic brewers friend calculator and spent some time plying round with it, adding different salts and seeing what happens etc. I’ve got my head around that part now. The only thing is, it doesn’t say whether to add the salts to the mash or sparge or split equally? It just asks for total water volume like it assumes you treat it all at once…I ain’t got a HLT capable of holding 40 damn litres

 

[Cheshire Cat]

How's doing it for them going to help them?

@leon, @Buffers brewery and @Old Fart At Play have pointed them to a simpler, more intuitive calculators that will do what they want. As have others on their other thread.

Input source profile, target profile*, volume to be treated. Add all the resultant salt additions to water, then mash and sparge.

* It needs to be a profile with a high chloride level to achieve the OP's objective of enhancing mouthfeel such as the one @matt76 linked to.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/pages/water-calculator/
https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water.html

When Geoff Boycott was Yorkshire captain he got out. As he was coming into the pavilion the next batsman said how’s it playing out there. Geoff said find out for yourself I had to. We are captains for players who are novices and should help all we can.

 

[The Baron]

When Geoff Boycott was Yorkshire captain he got out. As he was coming into the pavilion the next batsman said how’s it playing out there. Geoff said find out for yourself I had to. We are captains for players who are novices and should help all we can.

That should be Sir Geoffrey to you CC

 

[Sadfield]

Geoff said find out for yourself I had to.

Exactly the point I was making. Links to the tools required to 'find out for themselves', were provide. As opposed to you telling them 'how it was playing'. Nice anecdote, thanks.

 

[Clint]

I needed quite a bit of help to get my head in "water mode". I'm not gonna go any further.

 

[Pennine]

Took me a lot of reading and podcasts to just barely understand what is happening, and then the ******* calculators have so many variables it just compounds the issue. The other problem is blindly listening to the calculators without understanding exactly how they work which complicates it even more.

I keep my brewing process very simple and only really think about 4 things.
Metabisulfite in filtered water especially if you have chloramines.

75% Phosphoric acid for mash pH you only need 4-6ml for soft water and a light colored beer.

Gypsum and Calcium chloride usually with a focus on getting calcium to at least 75ppm and the ratio of the two depending on what you are brewing.

I also just treat the strike water and not the storage water.

 

[Sadfield]

The calculator will give the same answer, whether you understand how it works, or not.

The problem here, is showing the answer to people who don't like it because it doesn't fit with what they do, or what they think the answer should be.

It's not that complicated. @Monkhouse is just trying to get there initial water composition from point A to point B. Nothing more.

 

[foxy]

I think it pays to do a few things, read the Brewers Friend water calculator Tutorial, watch the video of how to use the calculator and thirdly listen to what the experts say, when it has been mentioned on here that 19 g of CaCl being to much. Take note of what an expert on water has to say, Martin Brungard of Bru'n Water to a post on HomebrewTalk about adding '15 g' of CaCl

https://www.brewersfriend.com/2017/11/19/brewing-water-basics-part-1/


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/how-much-calcium-is-too-much-biab-water-chem.667843/

 

[Sadfield]

Expert my arse, he may understand water chemistry, he knows nothing of British brewing and beer.

I understand the mechanics of cooking, but can't cook and spice dishes like an Indian grandmother, because I lack the cultural knowledge and points reference.

Too much?!

 

[foxy]

Expert my ****, he knows nothing of British brewing.

I understand the mechanics of cooking, but can't cook and spice dishes like an Indian grandmother, because I lack the cultural knowledge and points reference.

But you haven't been paying attention, the OP is making an American stout. And I think you will find MB knows a lot about all beer styles, he has to being a qualified beer judge.

 

[Sadfield]

But you haven't been paying attention, the OP is making an American stout. And I think you will find MB knows a lot about all beer styles, he has to being a qualified beer judge.

Why bring Guinness into it, then? Last time I looked it was Irish.

You should try to keep up foxy,
they're asking about stouts (plural). American advice on chloride won't help here.

Better head retention and better mouthfeel on my stouts is what I’m after.

Trust the calculators. Brew the beer.

 

[foxy]

Why bring Guinness into it, then? Last time I looked it was Irish.

You should try to keep up foxy,
they're asking about stouts (plural). American advice on chloride won't help here.


Trust the calculators. Brew the beer.

The OP was using a Dublin water profile, but brewing an American stout. The water calculator which Buffer put up was about as useful as teats on a bull. Just said 'Stout' there are dry stouts, sweet stouts, oatmeal stouts all with different profiles. Best to go with a proper calculator which stipulates the stout being brewed, not one fitted with training wheels.

 

[Clint]

This is better than the brexit thread!

 

[Clint]

How many recipes have I read and there's advice of "add a teaspoon of gypsum" to the mash water? This is without any prior knowledge of the water composition..now that's useless information!