It appears to me that it would be relatively easy to have a water calculator that would automatically tell you what chemical additions to make to your mash water if you are starting with distilled water. However, I cannot locate anything on the internet that offers that. When I try to use the water calculator, starting with 0 across the board, I have to spend 15 minutes adjusting and changing all these numbers around to get to "all green" numbers. I wish I could simply tell it I have "x" water volume and am using distilled water and I want to brew a Doppel (or whatever beer style) and it would tell me how much of what I need to add (e.g. 2 grams gypsum, 3 grams epsom salt, 5 grams calcium chloride, etc.) Does anyone know of such a calculator?
I understand where you’re coming from, and this topic has been discussed plenty. However, the calculator is not that difficult to use. The first thing you need to do is set up your own water profile - be that distilled, reverse osmosis, your own city water, or whatever. Then you make the calculator work with your source. Just yesterday, I created a recipe, and didn’t spend 2 minutes on the brewing salts additions. It takes a few turns, then after some practice you start to learn how to make the calculator work for you. You plug in a salt addition, see the result, accept the result or make further changes. Give it a try, and good luck.
The short answer is that it is trickier than it looks. That is why you have not found such a thing. With practice the water calculator becomes easier to use.
I use ezwater. Super easy to setup and gives good results EZ Water Calculator https://ezwatercalculator.com/
We're actively working on this! The upcoming rerelease of the mobile app will offer this feature and we'll be incorporating it into an overhaul of the water chemistry once it becomes integrated into the recipe builder.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Priceless!!! After Hermbrews response about it being trickier than it looks, I was scratching my head as to why it was so tricky to do something that seems to me to be straightforward if starting with a blank slate. My problem is I really don't want to pore through hours of reading articles to begin to wrap my head around the chemistry. I did well in chemistry in high school and balanced equations like a champ, but that was over 40 years ago. Heck, I still can't get a straight answer on whether calcium chloride and calcium chloride dihydrate are two different things! I'm hoping we will be notified when the mobile app is released? I'm looking forward to it!
It tells you the difference between calcium chloride anhydrate and dihydrate. I think you click the question mark next to it? Its been awhile. But also it tells you the ions and how many, which is usefull. But I agree it would be much simpler if it was prebuild in and just spit out some number for us. My thought though I still get confused is the add salts to the mash only feature. And how does that change my beer as a whole. Its not really talked about much and can be confusing.
only way I have ever done it. havent bothered with the added complexity of pre and post mash minerals. IMHO, it is important, but adds a subtle change the beer (assuming you dont go crazy)
So you are saying you just add your salts to the mash and thats it? If so, does the calculator base the salt additions for the mash only or the whole volume in total? Thanks
Yes only to the mash, which of course becomes the boil and beer. The calculator i use have the ability to split it between pre and post, i just don't have a reason to do it as yet
