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Automatic Water Chemistry

bytemyfoot

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It would be nice to have a place to enter the particular water chemistry of my house, then choose a "destination" water profile and have the software automatically calculate any additions needed to achieve that style.  I've played with the built in calculator once, but it would be nice to have the process stored and automated.
 
You already have that available to you. 

Under ingredients at the top, click on Water.  It will bring up a tab with a bunch of pre-installed water profiles from around the world.  Click once on any one of them.  Then right click on the one you just highlighted and click copy from the dropdown box.

Now,  left click away from all of the water profiles in the list, so that none of them are highlighted.  Now right click away from the profiles in an empty area...this will bring up a drop down menu again.  Click on "paste".  This will give you a duplicate of the original profile of the city you chose. 

Just double click on one of those two duplicate copies.  This will bring up a tab of that water profile.  Rename it to your local area and change all of the information in it to fit your local area.  When you click ok, you now have your local water in the list.  Whatever name you put in the "name" area on the tab is the name it will have in the list.  and.........you'll still have the original copy of the water profile that you duplicated too.

I hope this helps.
 
I use another software, but I think if you select your water as Scott describes as your base profile, then select your target profile,  then click 'save additions to target', then select the target as your water ingredient it will add your salt additions as calculated by Beersmith to your recipe automatically. 
 
KernelCrush said:
I use another software, but I think if you select your water as Scott describes as your base profile, then select your target profile,  then click 'save additions to target', then select the target as your water ingredient it will add your salt additions as calculated by Beersmith to your recipe automatically. 

This is true (ish). 

1.  Scott described how to create your own "home" water profile. 
2.  KernelCrush described how to save a set of additions to "create" a particular profile from your water + salts.  Although, he did leave out the step where you click the "calculate best additions" or whatever its called (right after loading your source water, and your target water, and before clicking "save additions to target").  That is the point where beersmith actually does the math on figuring out the right additions.

There are a couple of caveats to this, though. 

1.  The "calculate best additions" only works as long as you do not use two source waters.  E.g. if you dilute with distilled water, this function doesn't properly take that into account.  The salt additions will be too low, and wrong.  I frequently dilute for blondes.

2.  ....I had a really long diatribe about the need to separate the mash additions and boil additions....which Beersmith can't do.  But, its just too long and messy.

3..... I also had a really long diatribe about replicating famous city water profiles, and the fallacy thereof.  Again, it just gets too messy. 

Both of the above diatribes would have pushed this post into the 3-4 page range.  I've written both in the past....sorry, I guess I'm feeling lazy today.  If you are messing with water, you should know why you are doing so.  There are a few different reasons, and the goals aren't exactly identical, and sometimes are contradictory.

Anyway, my point is that while the water tool is kinda interesting, its too complicated and too simple at the same time.  It doesn't help you manage your water chemistry in the ways that you should...if you are going to bother doing it at all.  So, you are better off managing your salt additions using a third party tool....or just keeping it dead simple, and adding a tsp each of CaCl and CaSO4 to your mash (because almost everyone can use a little extra calcium for their yeasties).  Equal parts CaCl / CaSO4 assures that you don't upset your base water Cl/SO4 ratio very much. 



 
Thanks, I did not realize you could store the additions with each style of water, that is helpful!  That said, why do I have to go in and repeat this process for each of the water profiles in the list to have it populate the requisite additions when, I assume, BeerSmith could calculate it automatically without my "approving" each style individually?

Tom, I appreciate your insight.  I'm only just starting to learn about the specifics of water chemistry, so I thought the classic water profiles would at least be a good place to start.
 
bytemyfoot said:
  That said, why do I have to go in and repeat this process for each of the water profiles in the list to have it populate the requisite additions when, I assume, BeerSmith could calculate it automatically without my "approving" each style individually?

Let's say that you want to use a Burton on Trent water profile for a guiness clone.  You don't "have" Burton on Trent water.  You have bytemyfoot water.  So, you have to figure out how to change your bytemyfoot water to Burton on Trent water.

To do this, go to "Tools" at the top and select Water Profile.  You'll get a big screen.  Click "Base Profile" and select "bytemyfoot" and it will populate your water chemistry.  Now click on "Target Profile" and select "Burton on Trent".  You can now click on "Save Additions to Target".  This way, when you're designing a recipe that needs "Burton on Trent" water, you can click on "Add Water" in the Design Tab of your recipe.  This will bring up all of the waters available to you.  When you click on "Burton on Trent" to add it to your recipe, you'll get a message that says, "This water profile contains mineral additions.  Would you like these additions added to your ingredient list?"

Click "yes" and BeerSmith will add "Burton on Trent" water to your recipe and every last one of the mineral additions necessary to change your Base "bytemyfoot" water to the "Burton on Trent" water that you desire.

To answer your question, the reason that you have to go through the list and do this process with each water profile that you want to use, is because BeerSmith is just a computer program.  Each time you design a recipe, it has no idea what water profile you are starting out with.  You have to tell it, I'm starting out with bytemyfoot water and I want Burton on Trent water.  Because you gone into the water profiler and put Burton on Trent as a target water profile that starts with bytemyfoot Base water, it now knows, Mr. Brewer wants Burton on Trent water in this recipe and he's starting out with bytemyfoot water.

Now, if you pack up your brewing equipment and go to your buddies house to brew, like I do from time to time, and use your buddies water and it isn't the same as your water, those mineral additions will not be correct.  If you want to use a Burton on Trent water profile at your buddies house, you'll have to either know what his Base Water profile is and go through the steps above, or you'll have to bring your own water.
 
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