# Water Chemistry

## Getting Started

### Batch Data

* Steps 1, 2, and 3b were taken from the recipe and your profile.
* Select the desired source water profile in step 3a.
* Add brewing salts or increase dilution as needed so the difference on line 8 reports all green values (within 20ppm).
* Watch for harmful levels as reported on line 9.
* Click the 'save' button at the bottom to store this information with your brew session.

**Notes About the Ion Level Report:**

* ![](/files/-MclCzYvz1qYQcCs8Roc) Within recommended generalized brewing range.
* ![](/files/-MclD0aO-TERExwZQ97A) Low, but not necessarily an issue.
* ![](/files/-MclD2cTu2a9Qk7OFFXL) Above recommended brewing range, but not harmful.
* ![](/files/-MclD4Wga0crES94p9lZ) 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 definitely harmful to the flavor 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 specifies 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](https://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/).


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.brewersfriend.com/brew-session/water-chemistry.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.