Bru n water profile help

[Coastalbrew]

Hi folks,
I searched around in the related threads but didn't see this addressed anywhere...

I am new to water adjustment and am playing around with the free version of Bru n water to try and get a better understanding of how this all works and the effects that different changes in mineral content can make. My municipal water content swings wildly throughout the year as the source changes, so I'm planning to use distilled water from my local Wally world. Does anyone know how I should go about setting up my water profile and sparge water profile for distilled water?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jag75]

Hey coastalbrew , I dont use the free version but it should be close . On the dilution box just click on Distilled and put 100% . What I do is input my grain bill . Most times I pick the color on the water profile section. For example if I'm doing a light colored beer I'll choose yellow . Then if it's a balanced style I'll choose that . Think there is 3 options of balanced, dry and full. Once you add your grain and choose water profile you will see where you ppm will be so then you adjust to get it close to the numbers as you can. Dont know if you've looked into the brew science section but there is a sticky called water priming or something like that. It's a good read . Just get on Bru n water and play around you will get the hang of it.

 

[IslandLizard]

+1 to @Jag75. ^

Many Wally worlds sell RO water for $0.39 a gallon. Supply your own containers. Just check the service log to make sure the membrane is working as it should, and buy a TDS meter (~$20). Distilled is $0.60 a gallon, here.

If you brew a lot, perhaps buy a small RO system. Can be used for more than just brewing. They can be had for $100-150. Don't get anything with proprietary replacement parts (e.g., filters canisters, membrane) as they tend to rake you over.

Buckeye Hydro, a forum sponsor, can set you up.

We stayed in a vacation rental on our Eastern Shore. Overall, the place was fine, but I must say, the water there was undrinkable. I'm pretty sure it was from a private well on the property. Even taking a shower was icky. The wife was out of the shower within 5 minutes, you may know what that signifies. Wally's world was on the way to our favorite brewery, Burley Oak. Hardly a hardship.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Thanks fellas. @Jag75 the only place I see dilution water is on the water adjustment sheet. Assuming I should make that adjustment and leave the water report and sparge water sheets as they are (blank)?

Cheers!

 

[Jag75]

Thanks fellas. @Jag75 the only place I see dilution water is on the water adjustment sheet. Assuming I should make that adjustment and leave the water report and sparge water sheets as they are (blank)?

Cheers!

Yes , then after you get the good numbers after inputting your gypsum, calcium chloride , lactic acid ect... you can go to the 5th or 6th tab that says something like adjustment summary and print that out so you can use for future use .

 

[Coastalbrew]

Awesome thanks!

 

[Coastalbrew]

Ok, so I've played around with the program for a few days now and think I'm getting the hang of it but am wondering if it is ok to collect all my water at one time and add my water adjustment to the combined total volume of water, then separate the sparge water volume from the mash water and proceed with my brew day as usual? The alternative would be to collect the 2 batches of water separately and treat them separately.

Any thoughts?

Cheers!

 

[Jag75]

I'm not sure I can answer that . It would seem to be fine but there may be a scientific reason not to . FWIW I just fill my total water up in my Grainfather then pump out to my sparge pot until the level is right. Then I add acids and salts to each as called for.

 

[IslandLizard]

I'm not sure I can answer that . It would seem to be fine but there may be a scientific reason not to . FWIW I just fill my total water up in my Grainfather then pump out to my sparge pot until the level is right. Then I add acids and salts to each as called for.

Using Bru'n Water I always add minerals to both mash and sparge water. The sparge water always needs some acid added as well, the mash doesn't.
But I did read somewhere that sparging with RO water is always best due to 0 alkalinity.

 

[mashpaddled]

Ok, so I've played around with the program for a few days now and think I'm getting the hang of it but am wondering if it is ok to collect all my water at one time and add my water adjustment to the combined total volume of water, then separate the sparge water volume from the mash water and proceed with my brew day as usual? The alternative would be to collect the 2 batches of water separately and treat them separately.

Any thoughts?

Cheers!

Depending on the recipe it might be appropriate to add salts/acid to the entire volume of water but typically Bru'n Water will instruct to treat them differently. Some of the minerals you do not want in your sparge and generally you want a different ph for sparging than the mash to avoid excessive tannin extraction. My thought is if you went through the trouble of adjusting the mash water then it is very little effort to do it a second time for the sparge water.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Thanks fellas

 

[Day-Day]

I use Bru'n Water and I treat my mash and sparge water separate. I'm not an expert with that spreadsheet by any means but it works well for me. I usually start my water profile in Beer Smith, then transfer everything to Bru'n water to check my ph. I cross check both Beer Smith and Bru'n Water to make sure they are close and nothing weird is going on. I use acid malt to lower my ph with hoppy beers and baking soda to bring it up with darker/maltier beers.

The big thing with the mash water is you want to get the ph dialed... if you add both the mash and sparge additions at once then mash, your ph might be way off... I think anyways.

I just follow the spread sheet.

 

[SEndorf]

If you are heating a combined water source for mash and sparge, it's much easier and accurate to combine additions. In my HLT I know a batch will require about 17.5 - 18.5 G. of combined water. I fill the HLT to 20 G and Bru n water tells me the exact additions. Of course, any Ph adjustment (lactic or soda) should be left out of this and only added to the mash. If you're using distilled or RO, don't acidify the sparge.

 

[Day-Day]

If you are heating a combined water source for mash and sparge, it's much easier and accurate to combine additions. In my HLT I know a batch will require about 17.5 - 18.5 G. of combined water. I fill the HLT to 20 G and Bru n water tells me the exact additions. Of course, any Ph adjustment (lactic or soda) should be left out of this and only added to the mash. If you're using distilled or RO, don't acidify the sparge.

This makes sense, but for me I only have a 7 gallon kettle to do 5 gallon batches... so I can't heat my mash and sparge water at the same time. I'll heat my mash/strike water, add salts, then mash in. After I mash in I'll heat my sparge water, add the salts, then lauter.

 

[Jag75]

FWIW Bru n water program calls for lactic acid in sparge . I've followed the directions of the program and have always hit my ph pretty good.

 

[rburrelli]

FWIW Bru n water program calls for lactic acid in sparge . I've followed the directions of the program and have always hit my ph pretty good.

You sure about that? It suggests on the spreadsheet not to add lactic to sparge water.

 

[Robert65]

You sure about that? It suggests on the spreadsheet not to add lactic to sparge water.

Really? It depends on the starting alkalinity and where the target is set on the sparge acidification page. It will normally even recommend a small acid addition to distilled or RO sparge water since that technically has some alkalinity re a pH 5.4 end point. But in that case you can ignore it. If you are using natural alkaline water for sparge of course it will recommend acid to bring alkalinity at least below 25ppm or to target pH, and whether that is lactic or other acid depends on your selection.

 

[Jag75]

You sure about that? It suggests on the spreadsheet not to add lactic to sparge water.

Yes . I'll have to look at that . But I'm 99.9 % sure it always has me add it .

 

[SEndorf]

To clarify, we're talking about RO water.
If your system is functioning properly, there should be 0 to 15 ppm alkalinity.
If you're brewing with 100% RO, you can ignore tabs 1 and 2 in bru n water (water input and sparge acidification)
On tab 4 (water adjustment) select RO as your water source at 100%

 

[Jag75]

Here is my water profile for my mexican Lager using 100% RO water . Sometimes I dilute with RO and sometimes I go 100% . This pic is from the adjustment summary page.

 

[rburrelli]

Yes . I'll have to look at that . But I'm 99.9 % sure it always has me add it .

My apologies to both you and Robert. I have used Bru’n Water three times and did not notice that there was indeed a entry block for acidification of the sparge. Like the other minerals the entry columns are side by side, and since the columns under sparge were blanked I assumed no acid in sparge.

 

[Jag75]

My apologies to both you and Robert. I have used Bru’n Water three times and did not notice that there was indeed a entry block for acidification of the sparge. Like the other minerals the entry columns are side by side, and since the columns under sparge were blanked I assumed no acid in sparge.

No apologies necessary man.

 

[Robert65]

No apologies necessary man.

Yeah no problem. There's a lot going on on those pages!

 

[rburrelli]

You are right about that. Just yesterday I noticed in the pop up notes that adding baking soda and then adding lactic is not recommended because one offsets the other. It explains to me why my pH mash tests were not dropping as low as I thought they should.

I understand since one is acidic and the other basic.