I also, through years of doing process control work, have learned never to fully trust any program or simulation where you cannot reproduce the equations yourself and arrive at the same answers.Ĭase in point, I typically use Rahr 2-row for my American styles and neither program predicts the pH well when using that base malt. I should add, that I typically use Acidulated malt for pH adjustment rather than acid, just a personal preference, and don't make any adjustments post-doughing in. While I like the integrated nature of BeerSmith 3 and the improvement over BeerSmith 2 in calculating the required acid for an adjustment, it does seem to be off by a greater amount than Bru'n water for my system. Where they differ is in the amount of acid or acid malt they call for in making a pH adjustment. They are pretty close with the differences being in the hundredths of a pH unit and it is nice having the salts automatically brought into the recipe.

I've always used Bru'n water for my water salt additions but have switched to BS3. But Brad, just include it in yours and let’s all be done with it!!!

I just wish there was some acceptance that the model may not be an effective approximation in many real world scenarios and an option to use the model that many of us want to use (customerīrad’s response to the above has been that you can continue to use another tool if you so choose. It is unfortunate as most every other aspect of BS is great (except the UI IMO). What concerns me is that I have only seen a single paper referenced to support the model, but I haven’t found any other independent testing to prove it. The one time I tried what BS estimated I was far off. I am not a scientist (by profession but I have written several published academic papers in my day), but I know what I see in my measurements. Unfortunately, Brad does not seem willing to accept that BnW’s model may be a better approximation in real world application for many users. Brad references a paper for his model stating that BnW does not account for acid density, but real world application seems to favor BnW (certainly in all of my brews and for many others who have raised this as an issue). It is generally observed that BS commonly overestimates the acid required to achieve a specific PH. For example, if the program recommends 6 gallons in the MLT and 1 gram of salts, and the HLT needs 10 gal, then put 10 gallons (or proportionally mixed tap and distilled water) in the HLT and 10/6 grams of salt in the HLT.You’re not missing anything. Once you know the amount of minerals needed to reach your water profile for your MLT, you will need to proportionally add the same amount to the HLT. Ignore the additions recommended for the HLT, because those numbers will generally be based on a lesser amount of sparge water. Set those water proportions in beer smith and determine the salt additions you need in your MLT you reach your target water profile. If you need to dilute your tap water, determine the proportion of distilled needed in order to get the water profile needed for your beer.

You can still use Beersmith with a HERMS system, but it will require a little bit of mathematics. One of the problems with Beersmith is it will not let you alter your sparge water amount if you are using a HERMS system that requires more sparge water than you will use. This way if everything works out, you will not need to keep rebuilding your water profile every time you go to brew a new recipe. You can then bring that profile into the recipe to match on the 'water' tab according to the actual water volume needed in the recipe. I would start on the Water profile tool to build your water using the materials you have available and then saving that combination of minerals and water supply as a Target Profile. In this case, I would prep all your water together and add the DI water as part of that volume. I am not sure you need to add any DI water (which is close enough to distilled to use that in BS) but you can always add some to enable the addition of more Calcium and Sulfate to the mix. I would recommend shooting for around 15 ppm of Magnesium as a max and then bringing your Calcium up to above 50 ppm and less than 100 ppm. Using gypsum and Epsom salts, you can easily bring the Sulfate content up to a reasonable range. You are just at a spot where you don't want to add too much more Na to the mix. Looking at your native water, you are not abnormally high in either Na or Cl.

Beersmith 3 wine acidity