I like the simplicity of Bru’n water over other calculators but I don’t understand how to account for water treatment. Does the Camden tablet affect the water mineral balance and if so how is it accounted for in Bru’n water? Am I missing something?
Likewise for Brewtan B. Should it be considered when calculating water mineral additions? If so how?
Camden tablets or other metabisulfite will add sulfate and chloride if used to dechlorinate, but a very small amount. Palmer and Kaminski say, for instance, if you are eliminating a typical 3ppm residual chlorine, you need 9.4ppm K-meta, and will result in 3ppm Cl, 8ppm SO4, 1.5ppm ammonium (yeast nutrient) and 4.2ppm total alkalinity. I would ignore all that, its within the target range for Bru’n Water profiles.
Brewtan B is a different story. It doesn’t directly affect pH I have found, but I discovered that it does chelate calcium, which I find somewhat negates its purported benefits in aiding protein coagulation and clarification. Elsewhere Martin has suggested that the reduction in Ca is in the 20ppm range.
SMB adds Na and SO4.
There is a spreadsheet to estimate how much SMB to add to your mash for low oxygen brewing. It’s a bit confusing. Enter your data in the blue cells. The Blue NaMeta is taken from the table on the left. Choose the value for the highest temp your water reaches before mashing. You estimate a margin on the other side. Once filled out there are cells for SO4 and Na ppm. Add those to appropriate values in Brunwater in your water profile tab. Just add them to what you got from Ward Labs.
http://www.lowoxygenbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/DO-and-Mashing.xlsx
When I add SMB, I crush the tablet and add the amount recommended from this spreadsheet.
The SO4 and Na amounts are significant enough to account for them. You are going to add 20-30ppm SO4 and a smaller amount of Na.
PS. My Campden tablets say they are Sodium Metabisulfite. I think they can also be Potassium Metabisulfite which is the compound Robert talks about above.
If adding metabisulfite for chlorine compound neutralization, the added Na and SO4 concentrations are much smaller than that. The levels mentioned above are from LODO brewing methods where more meta is added to the water to provide continuous oxygen scavenging.
Thx folks. I have looked at the LODO spreadsheet and did find it confusing. Still not sure I am tracking but I appreciate the replies.
It is definitely confusing.
On the far right, answer the Pre-Boil? question first. I leave the rest of that column unchanged.
In the middle, there are two NaMeta columns. Copy the value in the left g/gal cell into the right g/gal cell. (I don’t know what you have to do that manually.) Then fill in the strike volume cell.
Still in the middle column: the cells labeled g have the amount of SMB (aka. NaMeta) in grams to add to your strike water.
The SO4 Added cell has the ppm of SO4 you are adding to the strike water by adding that amount of SMB.
The Na Added has the ppm of Na you are adding to the strike water by adding that amount of SMB.
If you are doing no-sparge, you are done. If you are sparging, then enter your sparge volume in the Strike Volume cell to get the amount in grams of SMB needed in the sparge water.
Add the ppm values from the SO4 Added and Na Added cells to the Brunwater water report page.
20ppm reduction in Ca when using Brewtan B huh? Interesting. I was unaware of that. I wonder where Martin obtained that from?
All I can do is refer you to the thread where it came up; as he explains it it makes sense, but a precise number isn’t there:
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=31388.0
Thank you!
+1. Thx!
So, since I use distilled water and build per grain bill, if I add 1.5 Camden tab crushed as well as Brewtan-B, I can adjust my starting water profile from all ‘0’ to -20 ppm Ca, +20 ppm SO4, and ‘x’ Na. Correct?
What is the volume of what that 1.5 crushed tablets is going into? 1 tablet is 550 mg (according to my bag). 1.5 is 825mg.
100mg/gallon = 26.7 ppm SO4 and 6.3 ppm Na.
Well it all depends. Let’s make some assumptions and do an example:
Strike volume = 8 gallons
1 Campden Tab is 75% Sodium Metabisulfite and weighs 550 mg
So for 1.5 tablets we have 825 mg total of which 75%, or ~619 mg, is Sodium Metabisulfite.
So 619/(8 * 3.785) = 20.4 mg/l or ppm of Sodium Metabisulfite is used to treat the water.
We always assume a potential of 101 ppm of SO4 and 24 ppm of Na per 100 ppm of Sodium Metabisulfite (use 89 ppm SO4 and 35 ppm K per 100 ppm of Potassium Metabisulfite). So for the doing described above, you’d get:
(20.4/100) * 101 = ~ 21 ppm of SO4 and (20.4/100) * 24 = ~5 ppm of Na.
As for loss of Ca from gallotannin, I don’t deny it but have never accounted for it and have not noticed any I’ll effects.
Hope this helps. If you have any questions about our spreadsheet, let me know. It’s very intuitive once you get used to it and I’m sure I could dig up a less busy older version for you if you’d like.
What version of the spreadsheet are you using?
Yeah, I wouldn’t use that anymore. It hasn’t been updated in a long time and the current setup in our main sheet is much more intuitive:
http://www.lowoxygenbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Low-Oxygen-Brewing-Software-v.8.0.xlsx
It’s crazy you even still have the link! I deleted that sheet and the blog post on it a while ago.
Thanks.
Are there instructions somewhere? This new spreadsheet seems daunting.
The “Field Manual” has quite a bit of info and there are built in comments on nearly every importent cell.
Thx folks. Just tryin to get my head wrapped around this.
I used 8.5 gal total liquor this past weekend.
I appreciate your explanation.
Don’t forget pH drop (0.1 per 100 ppm Metabisulfite):
20.4 ppm Sodium Metabisulfite = (20.4/100) * 0.1 = -0.02