BrewinHooligan

Recipes 

Thanks for this write-up Kai! I am planning a Belgian Tripel and was having issues with my pH and water adjustments. According to the Bru'n water spreadsheet I would need 6% acid malt to bring pH to 5.4 and I was worried about off flavors. Would you advise possibly not trying to mimic a specific water source to keep the pH in range with less acid malt, or brew with 6% acid malt in the grist?

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On Tap: Pineapple Heffeweizen, Fretzy's clone (english pale ale)
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Kaiser

Recipes 

I'd be careful with BW and acidulated malt. It doesn't seem to implement it correctly. Run your water and recipe through this one http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/, just for a 2nd opinion. Maybe one day I write an import function for the various water spreadsheets out there. Recently a fellow club member mentioned to me that BW wanted him to add 10% acid malt which was rather excessive.

You should see a pH drop of about 0.1 pH units for every % of acidulated malt used.

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BrewinHooligan

Recipes 

Great to know! I will certainly check out that calculator, 6% accumulated malt only dropped me around .3 pH if I remember correctly and thought that was excessive leading me to some searching and your post. Thank you again, your contributions here have had a huge impact on the quality of beer I make.

__________________
Primary: IIPA
Secondary: Skeeter Pee
On Tap: Pineapple Heffeweizen, Fretzy's clone (english pale ale)
Bottled: APA, Milk Stout(bronze and gold medals), Spiced Punkin Ale, White House Honey Porter (ag), Mango Wine, Gerwurztraminer
"If wrong feels so good I don't wanna be right."

BrewinHooligan

Recipes 

Update, re-ran my figures through your calculator Kai and according to that only half the Acidulated Malt that BW stated I needed would be needed to drop the pH from 5.7 to 5.4. Thank you again

__________________
Primary: IIPA
Secondary: Skeeter Pee
On Tap: Pineapple Heffeweizen, Fretzy's clone (english pale ale)
Bottled: APA, Milk Stout(bronze and gold medals), Spiced Punkin Ale, White House Honey Porter (ag), Mango Wine, Gerwurztraminer
"If wrong feels so good I don't wanna be right."