Do minerals lose effectiveness? Some do!

Some brewers worry that their brewing minerals have been sitting around too long. Let's look at which minerals you should be concerned about freshness with.

The following list of minerals do not lose effectiveness:

• Gypsum

• Epsom Salt

• Table Salt

• Baking Soda

• Chalk

In the case of chalk, its 'effectiveness' is quite debatable unless it is properly dissolved into solution with CO2. In my opinion, chalk is not effective in most brewing usage.

The listing below are minerals that may loose effectiveness over time:

• Calcium Chloride

• Pickling Lime

• Magnesium Chloride

Calcium chloride is highly hygroscopic which means it sucks up water from its surroundings. Moisture from the air is the main water source. The calcium chloride doesn't really 'loose' its effectiveness, it just gains weight. So if you were assuming it was in either the anhydrous (water-less) or dihydrate forms, the amount of calcium chloride delivered per unit weight is decreased due to extra molecules of water absorbed into the mineral. Its diluted. Moral of the story: keep in a tightly sealed container and avoid any water or moist air contact.

Pickling lime is a bit different in that it doesn't absorb water into the molecule. It reacts with CO2 in the air to eventually turn the lime into chalk. Since the lime is in solid form, its ability to react with CO2 in the air is very low. So the effectiveness of lime is relatively constant, but can be accelerated if the lime is in contact with moist air. Moral of the story: same as above.

Magnesium chloride is also hygroscopic. But it appears that it stabilizes to a relatively constant hexahydrate form. At typical room-temperature, it appears less likely to gain or lose water molecules. So it probably doesn't really change much. Moral of the story: Don't worry about this one too much.

So keep these minerals in air-tight containers and replace them if their appearance changes.

Getting Started With Bru’n Water

Bru'n Water appears to be a complicated program, but it is actually quite simple once you understand the program flow. Once you understand the flow, you will be able to see the extra utility of the various features that are incorporated into the program.

The first thing is to obtain the water quality information for your water source. If it's the tap water, sometimes water companies have the data that we brewers need. For water companies, the parameters we are looking for are termed "Secondary Standards". These are things that are mostly aesthetic. Primary Standards are things in water that could harm your health, but we brewers know that having data on the Secondary Standards helps avoid harm to our brews!

If the water company doesn't have all the Secondary Standards data needed for brewing use, then the brewer may need to rely on a third-party water quality laboratory to perform that testing. Firms like Ward Labs in the US and Murphy's in the UK can perform the testing needed.

In some cases, a water report may be missing only one important parameter. For most potable waters, the predominant ions in the water are: Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Sulfate, Chloride, and Bicarbonate. If only one of those ions is missing, then it may be possible to insert the missing ion into the Water Report Input sheet and adjust its concentration until the water report "Balances". This means that the quantity of positive ions (cations) is equal to the quantity of negative ions (anions).

Getting Water Report information to balance better.

So you have entered data into the Water Report Input sheet. But the Cation/Anion Difference says that the difference is too great (unbalanced). What to do now?

As mentioned in Part 1, the predominant ions in most drinking water are calcium, magnesium, sodium, bicarbonate, sulfate, and chloride. Other ions are typically at very low concentration and can usually be ignored. So the first thing you should check is if the water report gave concentrations for all those predominant ions. If any are not reported, they could be the source of the imbalance that Bru’n Water indicates.

If only one predominant ion concentration is missing and you are confident that the other concentrations are correct, you may be able to assume that the imbalance is due to the missing ion. Enter a low concentration for that missing ion and see if that decreases the Cation/Anion difference. If it does, keep adjusting that value until the difference is less than 0.1 meq/L and assume that this concentration is sufficient for your purposes. This is a bit of a stretch, but it can be better than nothing.

Some water reports also present values for hardness and alkalinity. With the data entered on the Water Report Input sheet, review the Total Hardness and Alkalinity values shown down the sheet. See if they are in the same ball park as the values in the water report. They should be close. If they aren’t, a little more data conversion may be needed.

If the Total Hardness calculated by Bru’n Water is HIGHER than shown in the water report, then it’s possible that the calcium and/or magnesium values are not in their proper format. It can be common for calcium and magnesium to be reported in ‘as CaCO3’ or other hardness units. Those concentrations need to be converted to actual concentrations of those ions. There are conversion calculators near the bottom of the Water Report Input sheet to help convert those values.

If the Alkalinity calculated by Bru’n Water is LOWER than shown in the water report, then it’s possible that the alkalinity value is in ‘as CaCO3’ format and it needs to be converted to a Bicarbonate concentration. There is a calculator for that conversion directly beneath the ion concentration input area. To simplify the calculation, assume the water pH is 6 and all of the alkalinity will be converted to Bicarbonate concentration.

Finally, be sure that you check the units that the water report presents for the various ions. Bru’n Water uses mg/L or ppm (they are considered equivalent). Sometime, reports present data in ug/L or ppb format. In that case, convert those ug/L or ppb values into mg/L by dividing by 1000. For example: 1 ug/L is equal to 0.001 mg/L.