Water Profile tool

[Russell]

  I have been using the Water profile tool in BeerSmith 2 and now in Beersmith 3. What is the difference between the water profile under "tools" and the one between "starter" and "mash" on the front? Do the salt additions come out to be the same only on has split them up to mash and sparge? Which should i use?

[Oginme]

The water profile tool (click on 'tools' > 'water profile tools') is a separate tool for creating water profiles and saving them to your water database.  It works independently of any recipe water requirements.  You start with your base water and add minerals and salts to obtain the profile you desire.  You can then save these additions to the water profile you build.  It is not responsive to water demand of a given recipe, but to the user input of the water requirement, nor does it split additions according to mash and sparge volumes.

The 'water' tab found within a recipe builds your water up from the base water you start with to match a specific water profile you have in your water database.  It will match the mineral and salt addition specifically for that recipe and water usage.  It will also apportion the mineral and salt additions to the volumes specified for mash and sparge in proportion to the volume split of the mash profile specified in the recipe.  In essence, it customizes the water profile additions to that specific recipe.

[beerology]

Hi  Oginme,

Sorry if I'm off the subject.

I heat my mash water in my boil pot before underletting to the mash tun.  Mash water volume I start with is always 40L, and I only use what is required for the mash as per Beersmiths required mash to grain ratio desired. ( yes there is water left over )

My Kettle is used for maintaining and raising the mash temp as required and sparging.  Kettle water volume is always 47L.

When entering the TOTAL volume of water to be adjusted, within Beersmith Water profile, where do I enter the correct volume, which in my case is 87L ( if I understand this correctly )

I need to know / ensure that the total amount of Water I'm using has the correct salt additions, but am I putting the 87L volume in the " Water Integrated Volume" box correctly?

Brads video does not mention this aspect within his video covering Water Profiling.

[Oginme]

I have been playing around with this for a while.  Unfortunately, the program only considers the volume required for mash and sparge when calculating the mineral salt requirements.  I've tried to figure out a work around for including the additional volume and unfortunately have come up empty at this time.  Maybe someone else will have some insight into tackling this issue.

[beerology]

Thanks  Oginme,

Here I was think I was going mad!
But I'm not the only one!
There has to be a solution out there.
There has to be other people out there with the same problem / method of operation.

Maybe Brad has the solution?

Not sure how to email him the question.

Cheers

Beerology

[Russell]

  here is another question. can I take the sparge amount of gypsum for example and the mash amount and put them together with the total amount of water? I would think that would work the same as splitting them up with sparge and mash amounts.

[Oginme]

On the water tab, you can make adjustments to any of the mineral salts which are in the design box.  So you can click on the gypsum amount for the sparge and change that addition to mash, or you can combine the mash and sparge amounts, enter the value in the mash addition, and delete the sparge addition for that additive.  You can also override the calculated recommendations as you wish to customize the additions for that recipe. 

[roger wood]

Hey Beerology,
Why not just "on the side - not in a recipe" calculate the correct amounts of salts for the total 87L to meet the ppm targets? You are looking for a ratio of ions to solution, not an absolute number of ions in the mash/kettle. You will end up throwing some on the floor, as you dump your excess liquor, but you should be operating on the right ratios. Then create a water profile with the noted ppms, and use that at the required volumes in your recipe.