My "match a water profile" doesn't add up on BeerSmith 3

[kurthoellrich]

I added my personal water profile and added "match a target" profile, but the final mineral numbers fall short of my target.  I can guess at mineral additions to increase the amounts, but I was thinking the program would do this for you.  I noticed Brad's example recipe on his YouTube turned out the same way but he seemed fine with it.  Can you help me understand this?  THANKS

Example: I wanted Ca=    140ppm and got 118.4ppm
                            Mg=      11ppm and got   5ppm
                            Sodium= 7ppm and got   3ppm
This is a screen shot of what I'm looking at:

[Oginme]

So the program does a 'best fit' match to achieve the amounts that you are targeting using the ingredients supplied.  When the program does this, it balances the minerals that it is over the target (Sulfate, Chloride) with those that it is under (Calcium, Magnesium)  [Sodium is a minor constituent and is just along for the ride].  Given your starting water values, it limits what can be added.

You have a few choices: (1) is to accept it the way it is and brew with it,  (2) is to get some RO water to either replace your current water or dilute down your current water to give you more room to add more minerals, or (3) change your targets a little to give yourself room to add more of the mineral salts to get higher Calcium and Magnesium levels.

Any of the above is acceptable and until you brew and taste your beer, there is no 'right' choice.  You have plenty of Calcium and Magnesium as it stands with your profile since you will get more available in the grains.  An accepted minimum of Calcium is around 50 ppm in the water to supplement the amount from the grains for good yeast health and flocculation.

[dtapke]

You'll notice that it's nearly impossible to get an EXACT match, because generally you're adding several things at once.

Add some CaCl and you're adjusting your Calcium and your Chloride, add gypsum and you're adjusting your Sulfate and Calcium,

therefore its nearly impossible to get the EXACT numbers you want.

so as an example your Calcium was low, to get your calcium up to 140ppm you would be over on your Chloride (you already are!) or way over on your Sulfate (CaSO4 increases sulfate at about 2.5X the Ca rate, so to add 20ppm Ca you'd add about 50ppm SO4)

[Oginme]

The only way to get a profile to match exactly is to design it yourself using the separate water tool and then saving that profile along with associated salts.

[kurthoellrich]

Thank you for the feed back!  You all have confirmed what I thought might be the issue.  It helps to have confirmation and I can proceed forward now.

[andrew08]

I'm trialing BeerSmith before I buy it and I'm confused about something.

When I print up my recipes there are two columns listed under "Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color" and the Estimated Original Gravity, Estimated Final Gravity, and Estimated ABV don't match up with the Measured OG, Measured FG, or Actual ABV.

In fact, strangely, the measured and actual values for each of my four recipes are exactly the same.

Anyone know why that is happening? 

[Oginme]

The measured values are for the user to input the actual readings into the program for record keeping and calculation of actual efficiencies vs the target values.  Until you fill these out, ignore the values listed.