Bru'n Water with Calcium Chloride Solutions

[Sudz]

I've been using this software for years and its great.

I recently updated to v5.5 and have decided to utilize calcium chloride as a liquid as supported by this version. I have made a solution of 15.4% and added it to a completed package developed for a tripel on the Water Adjustment page. I did this after removing the dry quantity (gram/gal) amount I had previously added during balancing the minerals.

I expected once the liquid percentage had been entered, adding values to the chloride box would reflect chloride amounts associated with the 15.4 % entered.

Nothing seems to work. The Water Additions box doesn't seem to report any Calcium Chloride once the form is set to liquid. Clearly I'm missing something??

Anyone out there that can help me understand using liquid calcium chloride with Bru'n Water?

 

[enkamania]

Did you enter it in the cell below the liquid selection as 15.4? If you entered .154 or 15.4%, it won't work right

 

[Sudz]

I did. But I may have discovered my error.

The original dry quantity was .37g/gal. With a 15% solution you need to really add more of the liquid to achieve a balance. Once I increased the addition to 1.80, the total water additions increased as I reestablished the original pH. The number reported in the total column is significantly greater than the original dry figure which I believe I now understand. This is mL volume and not the dry weight identified as grams. So on the Adjustment Summary page the 18.6 identified for grams of calcium chloride is actually mL of my solution.

Does this make sense? Thanks for the help....

 

[enkamania]

Have you measured the sg? That's what I used and entered into the strength calculator.

 

[balrog]

You really need the SG to know what solution % really is
Regardless of measuring weight initially, you've no idea what the water absorption % was at that time unless you'd just baked your CaCl dry.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

You really need the SG to know what solution % really is
Regardless of measuring weight initially, you've no idea what the water absorption % was at that time unless you'd just baked your CaCl dry.

Bingo! Your initial calcium chloride prills may have been 4% water, or they may have been 40% water, or anything in-between. Only specific gravity can sort it out.

 

[Sudz]

Guess I failed to indicate I did have a measured SG which Bru'n Water used to calculate the 15% solution being used. I do believe I now understand how this plays out in Bru'n Water. I was confused since the 1.80 (mL) entered on the left under g/gal resulted in the 18.6 (mL) to be added to the mash.
Playing with different values for %, the required 18.6 mL never changes. I was expecting this figure to change with changes in % but now understand it will not. The "finished water adjustment" in the Water Profile Adjustment value does change as does the pH which reflects the different % concentrations.

Thanks for the feedback guys