CRS & Campden Tablet - Adjusted Water Profile Calculator

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-Bezza-

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I've prepared a simple Excel calculator that determines the effect CRS and Campden Tablet additions have on a water profile, as well as the amount of CRS needed to reach a target alkalinity level (as CaCO3).

This should be useful for those using Beersmith which doesn't recognise CRS (I believe it's not as common in the US as it is over here). I assume there are other beer calculators out there that might not recognise CRS too. The idea was to create something that was simpler to understand than some of the other water calculators.

The idea is that you would enter your existing water profile, total water volume and target alkalinity and the calculator will determine the total CRS addition needed and the effect the CRS has on Sulphate, Chloride and Alkalinity. You can then create the Adjusted Water Profile in Beersmith and use that as your "starting" water, allowing Beersmith to then determine any other salts required.

The calculator will only work where you are looking to reduce alkalinity so don't try and use it if you're trying to increase it - that's an entirely different ballgame.

It also calculates the negligible effect Campden Tablets have on water profile - I thought I'd include this for good measure.

Let me know if you have any questions or spot any issues.

Thanks, of course, to @strange-steve for his technical input and for giving the calculator a quick check.
 

Attachments

  • CRS Adjustment - Take 2.xls
    38 KB · Views: 158
it doesnt let me put in an alkalinity target.......

Hmm, I tried to be clever and stop people putting in a target that was higher than their current alkalinity but stupidly got the sign the wrong way round! I'll fix and repost tonight.

In the meantime, if you need to use it immediately....

click the "review" menu and select "Unprotect sheet".
Select cell C17 (the one where you enter the target alkalinity) and then click on the "data" menu and click on "Data Validation". In the "Allow:" drop down, change it to "any value" then click ok.
 
Right, amended the first post to include an updated file. I'm not sure I did get it wrong actually - looks like it might be a compatibility issue over different versions of excel and having to save an xlsx file as xls. Not entirely sure but I've fixed the problem in any case.
 
Nice work Bezza. I'll use it for my brew tonight. Looks like you need to edit the campden tablet addition formula as follows:
=IF($C$15="",0,$C$23*$C$15/35*16)
 
Nice work Bezza. I'll use it for my brew tonight. Looks like you need to edit the campden tablet addition formula as follows:
=IF($C$15="",0,$C$23*$C$15/35*16)

Not sure I agree with this but happy to be corrected.

You're suggesting I switch the numerator and denominator in the sulphate adjustment. The adjustment is based on the figures for 35l of water and gives an additional 16ppm of sulphate per tablet. If you halve the total water volume but stick with one tablet, the formula currently doubles the sulphate adjustment at 32ppm, which is what I would expect it to do.

Does that sound correct or was there something else you were suggesting?
 
I'm always impressed with people taking the DIY approach. I like tinkering with spreadsheets but water chemistry always seems like it has too many variables for me to get my head around.

Also, the paid version of Bru 'n' water ($10 donation) includes CRS/ARS and is a really excellent investment if you're interested.
 

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