Water Chemistry Calculator

Gypsum grams are solved directly from your Target Sulfate, and calcium chloride grams are solved directly from your Target Chloride — those two targets are what drive the salt amounts. Target Calcium is used only to report the Calcium Deficit (target minus source), so it's informational rather than a third variable the calculator dosifies for; whatever calcium results comes as a byproduct of the sulfate and chloride additions plus your source water's own calcium.

This calculator only adds calcium as a side effect of dosing gypsum for sulfate and calcium chloride for chloride, so if your targets are low but you still need more calcium for healthy yeast flocculation and enzyme activity, you'll need a calcium source it doesn't add automatically, such as calcium carbonate. Consider raising your sulfate or chloride target if that fits your beer style, or add a calcium salt manually and recheck your resulting mineral profile.

The calculator only tracks calcium contributed by your source water — it adds your entered Source Water Calcium to whatever calcium the gypsum and calcium chloride additions contribute to get Resulting Calcium. It doesn't account for sulfate or chloride already present in your source water, so if your water report shows non-trivial baseline sulfate or chloride, your actual resulting levels will run higher than what's shown here — pull a real water report and adjust your targets accordingly before dosing.

It's your Target Sulfate divided by your Target Chloride, and it's the single number most associated with a beer's perceived balance: ratios above roughly 2:1 tend to accentuate hop bitterness and dryness, while ratios below 1:1 tend to round out malt sweetness and body. A ratio near 1:1 is generally considered balanced, which is why hoppy styles are typically dosed toward higher sulfate and malty styles toward higher chloride.