Mash pH in recipe different than in water calculator

acabellouk

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Hello,

I've been using BrewersFriend for a while and so far it has been great.

Usually I save my recipe and open the water calculator afterwards.

I then, play around adding acids (CRS), salts etc until I reach my desired water profile and pH and then save.

Water profile shows a decent pH according to my additions but once I export it to the recipe the pH value rises up, a lot.

This has always worked for me in the past, having the same value on both (calculator+recipe) I just notice this recently.

I don't know who to trust now: calculator or recipe?

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks in advance

Adrian ;)
 
Hi Adrian. When you return to the recipe, are you clicking “update recipe” next to the water calculator link? The water calculator pH prediction is the one to trust.
 
Hello Yooper,

Thanks for replying.

yes, I do click update recipe as I always used to do that. Now the water calculator is giving me 5.3pH and once I update the recipe rises up to 5.7ish...

Thanks to that the last beer I brewed (english bitter) I trusted the recipe instead of the water calculator and probably added way more acid that what I actually needed.

I just opened the calculator now and typed in the amount of acid I used (according to the recipe builder). ph was at 5.03... a bit too much I think. I might need to dump this one out.

anyway, next time I'll stick to whatever the calculator says instead.

Thanks again
 
Can you give me a link to that specific recipe so I can dig into it. The behavior is not typical, and something is wrong. I need to get an idea of what’s happening so I can have the developer fix it. Thank you!
 
Hi....Having same issue as well. I have had been able to get it to work in the past, but not sure what I'm missing here. Water calc says mash ph of 5.36....Recipe says 5.4
 
Hi....Having same issue as well. I have had been able to get it to work in the past, but not sure what I'm missing here. Water calc says mash ph of 5.36....Recipe says 5.4
For sure it should be the same, but I must point out that "it is close enough for me". Whatever the calculation error is, it is not drastic by any means. I would not be hesitant to brew based on the error.
 
I too had this same problem with my last brew. It's been a few weeks so I'm not sure but, I don't think I saved my recipe before I went to the water calculator. After returning from the calculator and updating the recipe, the PH would jump from 5.4-ish to 5.6-ish. I found the problem was that the amounts for one or two of the additions were different in the recipe and the water calc screen. I think I wound up deleting the water calc and doing it the correct way: Save before and update after.

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I have the same issue here, only that the gap is huge. On the recipe I get 4.64 and on the water calculator 5.34. After saving and clicking update nothing changes.
 
I have the same issue here, only that the gap is huge. On the recipe I get 4.64 and on the water calculator 5.34. After saving and clicking update nothing changes.

I don't see the water calculator linked to your recipe- and the pH looks fine on the recipe. I sent you an email about this because I can't recreate your issue.
 
I don't see the water calculator linked to your recipe- and the pH looks fine on the recipe. I sent you an email about this because I can't recreate your issue.
Hi, I have the same problem. The calculator says I should add alot of acid, almost 3 times the amount I use for brewing, and there's no way I could change it. The water calc is X8T4PXG. Please help!
 
Hi, I have the same problem. The calculator says I should add alot of acid, almost 3 times the amount I use for brewing, and there's no way I could change it. The water calc is X8T4PXG. Please help!

Which recipe is it? I'll take a look.
 
I took a quick look, to see the water calc, and the reason for the acid is that your bicarbonate/CaCO3 level is pretty high. To get the mash pH in the lower range where you want it requires that amount of acid addition. Does that answer your question, or is there a reason that you didn't add acid before?
 
I have noticed - though not very often I admit - that starting with a copied recipe, that has some water conditioning salts in it already:
1. save the recipe
2. go to the water Calcs area.
3. Adjust the salts required to get the profile you are aiming for
4. Save the settings and return to the recipe
5. Update the recipe with the water profile and...

The newly calculated salts are added into the recipe in new entries of Other additions. If the salts were the same as in the original recipe then they are now doubled up. I just go in and delete the original salts - assuming the water calc is correct this time.

This has been rare but there may be some bug in there somewhere. Don't ask me what recipe it was - it has been confined to the Old Age part of my mind and I can't remember such details now - only that it happened. A bit like most of my life these days lol
 

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