CyclingCraig

Recipes 

Just looking for a sanity check on my numbers.

Brewing Black Widow Porter from Jamils' BCS book

Starting Water:
Ca: 32
Mg: 11
Na: 29
Cl: 50
SO4: 42
CaCO3: 72

Mash Water: 5.17
Sparge Water 4.2

Total Grain: 13.8 lbs
Crystal Grain: .9 lbs
Roasted Grain: 1.1
SRM: 35

Additions: (Mash / Boil)
Gypsum(CaOS4) 1 / .8
Calc Chloride (CaCl2) 1 / .8
Baking Soda (NaHCO3) 3 / 0

What do you guys think ?

Beerrific

Recipes 

I brewed essentially that recipe with water adjusted to:

Ca: 47
Mg: 1
Alkalinity as CaCO3: 22

I read the mash pH and it was 5.15 at mash temp. So that is about 5.45 at room temp. That would have been fine, but I added 2 grams of baking soda and go to 5.24 at mash temp or about 5.54 at room temp. Anyway, what I am saying is that since you have more buffering capacity in your water, you probably don't need any baking soda at all.

My experiences here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/dark-beer-mash-ph-201245/

Bobby_M

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Recipes 

I agree with beerrific on potentially not needing the baking soda. I'd leave it out and check the pH even with a cheap strip. If it's over 5, I'd call it fine.

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