7/29/2019 Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator - Brewer's Friend

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Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator

Water chemistry calculator for beer brewers targeting certain mineral levels. Converts salt additions to
teaspoons. Calculates balance of avor ions and checks for harmful levels.

This calculator is good for basic water adjustments and targeting a avor pro le only.

NOTE: Our new and improved water calculator more accurately predicts mash pH and handles
advanced features like acid and slaked lime additions: Mash Chemistry and Brewing Water
Calculator.

Instructions:

1. Enter your batch data in the rst box.

2. Water volume is all the water going into the mash, including losses and boil o . It is not the batch
size or boil size. If you plan to have extra water left behind in your HLT, count that as well. The idea
is to get the input water for the batch to match the same conditions as the target pro le (eg, as if
you were using water from the river Trent).
3. Find and enter your source water's mineral levels on line 4, tune target levels as desired (line 5).
4. Add brewing salts as needed so the di erence on line 8 reports all green values (within 20ppm).
5. Watch for harmful levels as reported on line 9.
6. Check the avor ion pro les below for appropriate levels and adjust brewing salts if necessary.
7. The water chemistry article at this site is a handy guide to understanding more about the ions.

Batch Data

1. Water Volume (total): 17.5    Gallons     Quarts     Liters

2. Percent Dilution: 0
Dilute with distilled water to lower source ion concentrations.

3. Target Pro le: Light colored and hoppy

UPDATE TARGET

Water Chemistry - Ion Levels (ppm or mg/L)

  Ca+2 Mg+2 SO4-2 Na+ Cl- HCO3- Alk

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7/29/2019 Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator - Brewer's Friend
Ca Mg SO4 Na Cl HCO3 Alk

4. Source 2.2 2.3 3.7 4.7 6.8 13.2 11

Minerals:

4a. Diluted 2 2 4 5 7 13 11
Levels:

5. Target 100 5 90 10 175 0 0

Minerals:

6. 103 10 86 13 168 0 0
Adjustments
From Salts:

7. Adjusted 105 12 90 18 175 13 11

Water:

8. +5 +7 0 +8 0 +13 11
Di erence:

Brewing Salt Additions

Chalk CaCO3 0 grams

Baking Soda 0 grams

NaHCO3

Gypsum 1.5 grams add 0.38 tsp

CaSO4

Calcium 5.35 grams add 1.57 tsp

Chloride
CaCl2

Epsom Salt 1.7 grams add 0.38 tsp

MgSO4

Canning Salt 0.6 grams add 0.10 tsp

NaCl

Ion Levels (based on Adjusted Water above)

Ca+2 Mg+2 SO4-2 Na+ Cl-    

9. Ion Level
Report:

Ion Balance for Flavor, Color and pH (based on Adjusted Water above)

Sulphate : malty
Chloride
ratio
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7/29/2019 Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator - Brewer's Friend
ratio

Alkalinity pale beer (0-50 ppm Alkalinity)

and SRM

UPDATE RESET

Notes About the Ion Level Report:

Within recommended generalized brewing range.

Low, but not necessarily an issue.

Above recommended brewing range, but not harmful.

Harmful, do not brew at this level!

A low or high ion concentration is not necessarily a bad thing, such as the case of Pilsen water,
where the target is practically diluted water, or the case of Burton on Trent where the sulfates are
elevated.
If the calculator reports a harmful level, this means it is de nitely harmful to the avor of the beer,
and quite possibly harmful to human health!

Notes About Alkalinity:

This calculator uses Bicarbonate (HCO3-) as the measure of alkalinity. If your water report
speci es alkalinity or hardness as CaCO3, multiply that number by 1.22 to get the HCO3- value.
Alkalinity (in ppm as CaCO3) = HCO3- x 50 / 61
If your source water is high for a given category, the easiest thing to do is dilute with distilled water
to cut down the mineral levels, then add salts to rebalance.

Notes about NaCl additions:

Use canning salt, kosher salt, pickling salt, or pure salt - just make sure it is not iodized. Avoid
regular table salt because it is iodized! Yeast will not handle iodine well so avoid 'table salt' or
'iodized salt'.

Notes About pH Calculation:

The pH calculation was removed from this calculator. Please try our new and improved Mash
Chemistry and Brewing Water Calculator.

Notes about what a teaspoon looks like:

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7/29/2019 Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator - Brewer's Friend

A teaspoon is best measured with a baking set of measuring spoons:

A teaspoon looks like this in a normal spoon:

In more humid climates, the salts will absorb water from the air, so pad 10% or so.

Results from this calculator will be approximate.

Sources:
How To Brew, John Palmer, 2006
Designing Great Beers, Daniels, Ray 1996

Thanks for using our calculator. You might be interested in the Complete Recipe Builder. Recipes
can be saved, printed, shared, and brewed for complete record keeping.

Click Here To Try The Complete Recipe Calculator

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