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Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator

Water chemistry calculator for beer brewers targeting certain mineral levels. Converts salt additions to teaspoons. Calculates balance of flavor ions and checks for harmful levels.

Instructions:

  1. Enter your batch data in the first box.
  2. Find and enter your source water’s mineral levels on line 4, tune target levels as desired (line 5).
  3. Add brewing salts as needed so the difference on line 8 reports all green values (within 20ppm).
  4. Watch for harmful levels as reported on line 9.
  5. Check the flavor ion profiles below for appropriate levels and adjust brewing salts if necessary.
  6. The water chemistry article at this site is a handy guide to understanding more about the ions.


Batch Data
1. Water volume (pre-boil): Gallons, Quarts, Liters,
2. Percent Dilution: Dilute with distilled water to lower source ion concentrations.
3. Target profile:
Water Chemistry - Ion Levels (ppm or mg/L)
 
Ca+2
Mg+2
SO4-2
Na+
Cl-
HCO3-
Alkalinity 
4. Source Minerals:
-
4a. Diluted Levels:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
5. Target Minerals:
-
6. Adjustments From Salts:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
7. Adjusted Water:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
8. Difference:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Brewing Salt Additions
Chalk CaCO3 grams
- (tsp)
Baking Soda NaHCO3 grams
- (tsp)
Gypsum CaSO4 grams
- (tsp)
Calcium Chloride CaCl2 grams
- (tsp)
Epsom Salt MgSO4 grams
- (tsp)
Canning Salt NaCl grams
- (tsp)
Ion Levels (based on Adjusted Water above)
Ca+2
Mg+2
SO4-2
Na+
Cl-
    
9. Ion Level Report:
-
-
-
-
-
Ion Balance for Flavor, Color and pH (based on Adjusted Water above)
Sulphate : Chloride ratio
Alkalinity and SRM
Estimated pH



Notes About the Ion Level Report:
  • Within recommended generalized brewing range.
  • Low, but not necessarily an issue.
  • Above recommended brewing range, but not harmful.
  • Harmful, do not brew at this level!
  • A low or high ion concentration is not necessarily a bad thing, such as the case of Pilsen water, where the target is practically diluted water, or the case of Burton on Trent where the sulfates are elevated.
  • If the calculator reports a harmful level, this means it is definitely harmful to the flavor of the beer, and quite possibly harmful to human health!
Notes About Alkalinity:
  • This calculator uses Bicarbonate (HCO3-) as the measure of alkalinity. If your water report specifies alkalinity or hardness as CaCO3, multiply that number by 1.22 to get the HCO3- value.
  • Alkalinity (in ppm as CaCO3) = HCO3- x 50 / 61
  • If your source water is high for a given category, the easiest thing to do is dilute with distilled water to cut down the mineral levels, then add salts to rebalance.
Notes about NaCl additions:
  • Use canning salt, kosher salt, pickling salt, or pure salt - just make sure it is not iodized. Avoid regular table salt because it is iodized! Yeast will not handle iodine well so avoid 'table salt' or 'iodized salt'.

Notes About pH Calculation:
  • This is very much an estimate. Adding dark grains to the mash will lower the pH.
  • Residual Alkalinity RA = Alkalinity (ppm as CaCO3) - 0.714 x Ca (ppm) - 0.585 x Mg (ppm)
  • pH = 5.8 + 0.00168 x RA
  • Typically sparge water does not need to be modified. If you are fly sparging, the pH in the mash can change as the wort is diluted.
  • This calculator does not try to anticipate the appropriate SRM range (beer color). Choosing a target water profile that matches the style is a good proxy. In general, Bicarbonate (HCO3-) ppm levels are: 0-50 for pale beers, 50-150 for amber beers, 150-250 for dark beers.
Notes about what a teaspoon looks like:
  • A teaspoon is best measured with a baking set of measuring spoons:


  • A teaspoon looks like this in a normal spoon:


  • In more humid climates, the salts will absorb water from the air, so pad 10% or so.
Results from this calculator will be approximate.

Sources:
How To Brew, John Palmer, 2006
Designing Great Beers, Daniels, Ray 1996



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