Help With Ez Water Calculator

[jakethesnake559]

Hi fellow brewers,

Looking for some help with water chemistry using the EZ Water Calculator 3.0 spreadsheet.

From reading some of Tony Wheeler's stuff in the articles section I understand that Melbourne water is pretty low in all of the key ions.
I got the 2011 water report from City West Water's website which reconfirmed the above is true for me in Richmond.
See attached, but here are the main ions & pH...

Calcium = 4ppm
Magnesium = 1ppm
Sodium = 4.6ppm
Bicarbonate = not listed, but shows Alkalinity (as CaCO3) = 12ppm
Chloride = 8ppm
Sulphate = 1.1ppm
pH = 7.3

Was thinking of just adding Calcium Chloride as my first step into water adjustments.
In Tony's article he mentions making a solution (100g Calcium Chloride in 540mL water) to keep on hand for easy additions.

Then I downloaded EZ Water Calculator 3.0 to see the effect of the grist in my last Pale Ale brew (as an example).
So I inputed the data from the water report and the grain details (my mash volume is 34L - BIAB).

Maris Otter - 4660g (80%)
Carahell - 580g (10%) ~ 10Lovibond
Light Munich - 410g (7%)
Malted Wheat - 175g (3%)

EZ shows the estimated mash pH as 5.71.

So to bring that down to around 5.4 using only Calcium Chloride, I need to add 30g at dough in :blink: .
Which then puts the Calcuim to 244ppm and Chloride to 434ppm....way too high (I think??).

So I'm guessing that's too much CaCl2 and I have to reduce the mash pH using other stuff too??
And what should the Residual Alkalinity be??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!! :icon_cheers:

View attachment PDFC_water_quality_report_2011_1_.pdf

 

[DKS]

JTS, I havent used this program as yet although I have looked at it a few times. Just looking at it overall I'de suggest you try adding Calcium Sulphate (gypsum) instead. I think you'll get closer to the mark.
Hopefully others will reply as Im not experianced with water cacls so try plugging it in and see what results. Theres always the old ph 5.2 magic powder.Good luck with it.
Daz

 

[hoppinmad]

Just get the ions to their recommended values then use a bit of phosphoric or lactic acid to adjust your pH. Do you have a pH meter?

 

[jakethesnake559]

Just get the ions to their recommended values then use a bit of phosphoric or lactic acid to adjust your pH. Do you have a pH meter?

Thanks guys.
Without thinking too hard, it looks like 3mL Lactic Acid, 10g CaCl2 and 10g MgSO4 would do the trick.
There goes my plan of just adding one thing :lol: !!

Don't have a pH meter...was looking at getting one, what's a good brand/model??
Looks like the general concensus is that pH strips are pretty piss-poor.

 

[hoppinmad]

Yeah that would work. You guys in Melbourne are lucky having such a blank canvas to work with!

 

[katzke]

From what you have posted you are out of whack.

I always get my Magnesium up to 15 first. Then balance chloride and sulphate to match my beer. have water like yours and have not had any problems balancing my beers. I do use more then just one salt addition. Even the one Thirsty does not like.

Don't remember using that program so can not comment on if it works.

 

[koots]

Just digging up an old thread here.

With salt additions the spreadsheet tells you how to much to add to the mash and how much to add to the sparge water. However with an acid malt or lactic addition it's just an overall figure, is there a way to work out how much to add to mash/sparge or do I just work it out on a ratio of strike:sparge water?

Cheers lads.

edit: Obviously if using acidulated malt then it will be in the mash so this question relates more so to the use of lactic acid. However does that mean acidulated malt is at a disadvantage to lactic additions due to the fact you would still need to treat sparge water with acid?

 

[koots]

anyone?

 

[manticle]

Presumably you are acidifying your sparge water because it is too alkaline? What is the pH of your water and what would you like it to be?

 

[koots]

Just after plugging in my salt additions etc into ez calc it gives me the mash pH and is still a touch high. therefore i need to drop it with a touch of acid so I thought that seeing as it splits the salts between mash and sparge I would need to split the acid also. I batch sparge so if I didn't treat the sparge water in the same way as the mash water my sparge would have an incorrect pH level wouldn't it? Or am I overthinking this?

Cheers manticle