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Using the Water Profile Tool

Johnh3nry

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Joined
Jun 14, 2014
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Location
Markham, Ontario
I'm having a little trouble understanding the Water Profile Tool. I see all the Target Profiles have PH levels between 6 - 8. When I input my local water profile and then Calculate Best additions it does so based on the chosen target. As I am coming up the learning curve on Water Chemistry for brewing, it was my understanding that the mash PH should be around 5.2. Does that mean that in order to calculate the correct additions, i need to manually create my own target profile? Is that the concept. If so, does anyone have some good base profiles for Pale Ales, Bitters and Pilsners?

Please tell me if I totally missed the point on this.

Thanks,

John
 
The current water tool predates most of the recent thinking on water by brewers. What it's showing is the standing pH of the water, not acidification of the mash. The water tool doesn't make adjustments with various acids, either. To compound that, if you select a water target with mineral additions, then want to change the water target, the previous mineral additions are not updated.

The water tool is the weakest, clumsiest part of BeerSmith. However, Brad has announced some updates are in the works, and he specifically mentioned pH as one of them.

BeerSmith said:
Regarding updates to the desktop version, I'm programming again now.  I just finished some HD screen support fixes (released in beta) for Windows and I have a pretty substantial list of items I would like to fix and add in the next desktop update.

A few areas of focus include adding some mash pH tools, improving the inventory  handling, and adding more cloud synch features.
 
That's good to hear. I think I was mostly concerned that I was not understanding the principle. I've been trying to make up for not paying attention in high school chemistry.  Looking forward to the new version.

Thanks,

John
 
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