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Using the Water Profile Tool

Rep

Grandmaster Brewer
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I want to begin using the Water Profile Tool and will have some questions that members may have answers.

I will be using RO water in making an American Amber Ale.  I need to choose a Target Profile that will fit an Amber American Ale. 

When I examine the list of offered Target Profiles, how does one choose the profile to begin work with?  Is it I just make the best guess I can, or, is there a more direct way of making that choice?

Then, after clicking the Calculate Best Additions button the additions and grams of that addition I am to make to my base water will fill in.  And my Base Water will now look very similar to my Target Water
 
Beersmith is a great tool, but for water adjustments I use Bru'n Water. It's free at    https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

Martin Brungard is a water chemist and spreadsheet wizard. His system has more moving parts than BeerSmith and it takes a little reading to understand it. It's worth the effort.

He has plenty of city water profiles (both native and boiled profiles) as well as color/malt/bitterness profiles.
 
durrettd said:
Beersmith is a great tool, but for water adjustments I use Bru'n Water. It's free at    https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

Martin Brungard is a water chemist and spreadsheet wizard. His system has more moving parts than BeerSmith and it takes a little reading to understand it. It's worth the effort.

He has plenty of city water profiles (both native and boiled profiles) as well as color/malt/bitterness profiles.

I have looked at Bruin Water and see its quality.  My needs are rather simple and I would like to keep everything in one software package.  Thanks for the suggestion.
 
durrettd said:
Beersmith is a great tool, but for water adjustments I use Bru'n Water. It's free at    https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

Martin Brungard is a water chemist and spreadsheet wizard. His system has more moving parts than BeerSmith and it takes a little reading to understand it. It's worth the effort.

He has plenty of city water profiles (both native and boiled profiles) as well as color/malt/bitterness profiles.

+1
Brunwater is the best water profile tool right now. Most of the time you use different tools or software for different things.
 
Rep said:
I will be using RO water in making an American Amber Ale.  I need to choose a Target Profile that will fit an Amber American Ale. 

When I examine the list of offered Target Profiles, how does one choose the profile to begin work with?  Is it I just make the best guess I can, or, is there a more direct way of making that choice?

I divide water adjustments in two.  My water is low in everything.  First, I add calcium and a touch of magnesium to all batches for yeast health and fermentation reasons.  That same calcium helps with hot and cold break and clarity also. 

Then I look at beer style and point the Chloride:Sulfate ratio to either Malty, Balanced or Bitter.  On all chemicals I aim roughly for the recommended minimums for brewing per Palmer's worksheet, rather than, for example, really spiking sulfates to drive bitterness.  My fear there is making five gallons of minerally-tasting beer. 

I largely ignore historical water profiles since reading that way back in the day, we really don't know what they did to the native water before brew-day, nor do we know the exact source of every day's water needs.  They could have pulled from numerous wells and had different water profiles each season, etc.  I use those historical profiles merely as examples of water that might suit the style rather than rule of law. 


 
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