Help Reading Water Reports

[barry44]

I'm sorry but I don't understand. Should I subtract 5.5 from 13.7 and put the result into the co3 cell along with the 5.5 in the calcium?

[Dave S]

I'm sorry but I don't understand. Should I subtract 5.5 from 13.7 and put the result into the co3 cell along with the 5.5 in the calcium?

Yes, that's what it looks like from your figures. The calcium content of your total alkalinity (CACO3) is 0.4. So 0.6 of the total is carbonate. i.e. 13.7 x 0.4 = 5.48, (5.5), so carbonate = 13.7 x 0.6 = 8.22. Or 13.7 - 5.48 = 8.22

[barry44]

And thats me? Perfect!! Thanks very much. Now I need to figure out how to reduce my alkalinity in the mash.

[Dave S]

And thats me? Perfect!! Thanks very much. Now I need to figure out how to reduce my alkalinity in the mash.

I don't think you need to In fact you will need to increase it. For a pale ale it should around the 30 mark. You can increase it with baking soda. For darker ales it should be more like 100 - 110. For your sparge water I'd leave it alone.

[barry44]

Is that the bicarbonate value?

[barry44]

As shown on tab 3?

[Dave S]

Is that the bicarbonate value?

Is what the bicarbonate value? It starts getting a bit grey for me also if delving too deeply. I don't worry about bicarbonate, the spreadsheet calculates that automatically. I just know not to use both. You can calculate one from the other, but if you stick with CACO3 there's no need to think about HCO3.

[barry44]

is the bicarbonate value the one that i want to put up to around 30?

apologies if i am asking too much, many thanks for all your assistance so far.

[Dave S]

is the bicarbonate value the one that i want to put up to around 30?

apologies if i am asking too much, many thanks for all your assistance so far.

No, forget about bicarbonate, just concentrate on alkalinity. It's that that you want to adjust. You will see it change in the third from right most column in the finished water profile row. That is what you want to be in the range 30-50.

[killer]

Hi Barry

Carbonate (CO3) and Bicarbonate (HCO3) are basically the same thing and interconvert based on the pH of the water. It is often reported as CO3 but at the pH we work at is mostly present as Bicarbonate. So though you input your figures as Carbonate the spreadsheet looks at it as Bicarbonate. On page 3 of the spreadsheet you should try to match the suggested profiles (You don't have to by the way, some people think the profiles are more geared towards american flavours - but it is a good starting point).

You can play around with tweaking salt/ acid quantities to match your modified profile to the suggested profile. The Bicarbonate figure is really just a suggestion - there is no correct figure - its only really important in how it effects the mash pH - which is much more important - if you have a good predicted mash pH I wouldn't worry too much about the bicarbonate figure.

[barry44]

Many thanks once again gents. I love this site.

I had a play around with boosting my calcium a little and I see that it has dropped my ph, on tab 4, to 5.5 based on treating the mash water.

I assume that I add the salts to the grain for this?

It also mentions sparge water additions, I assume it is as simple as adding the salts to the sparge water as it heats?

[barry44]

is the bicarbonate value the one that i want to put up to around 30?

apologies if i am asking too much, many thanks for all your assistance so far.

No, forget about bicarbonate, just concentrate on alkalinity. It's that that you want to adjust. You will see it change in the third from right most column in the finished water profile row. That is what you want to be in the range 30-50.

Perfect.

Thanks

[orlando]

I assume that I add the salts to the grain for this?

It also mentions sparge water additions, I assume it is as simple as adding the salts to the sparge water as it heats?

The author advocates adding salts to the liquour to ensure a proper mix. Same applies to sparge water so yes. There has often been comment on why not treat all the water in one go, why bother to split into mash & sparge. The answer to this is it depends on what your starting water profile is and what style of beer you are trying to make with it. For example you may not need to alter your water for the mash at all but you will nearly always have to reduce the alkalinity of your sparge water if you live in a hard water area.

[barry44]

Gents, with regard to the sparge acidification page. Can you advise what I enter as my water alkalinity at the top of the page? Would it be 13.7?

[AnthonyUK]

Gents, with regard to the sparge acidification page. Can you advise what I enter as my water alkalinity at the top of the page? Would it be 13.7?

It's extremely unlikely with 14 being the absolute maximum. How did you arrive at this?