Johnnyboy1012
Well-Known Member
Hey guys,
I'm going to be brewing a clone of Stone's Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. I got the recipe from BYO's Classic Clone recipes. I use EZ water calculator to make my water adjustments and get the correct mash pH. The problem I am having is when I adjust my water with salts and lactic acid to get the ratios I want and correct mash pH, according to the spreadsheet my Residual Alkalinity is in the negatives (which I know is for pale beers). Long story short I am confused what to do and how to adjust this. I've read on here not to worry about RA anymore, but with my RA in the the area used mostly for pilsners, it's concerning.
The grain bill for this beer is:
16.5# 2-row
.5# Carapils
.5# Crystal malt (15 L)
2# flaked oats
1# chocolate malt
.25# roasted barley
.25 # black malt
mash water 6.52 gallons and sparge 3.52 gallons.
Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 35
Mg: 8
Na: 46
Cl: 77
SO4: 21 (listed as 7 on Ward Labs report so I multiplied by 3 as per EZ calc)
CaCO3: 90
Without water additions my mash pH is 5.67, so slightly high. I would like the chloride to sulfate ratio to obviously be on the chloride side. I notice that when I adjust my mash with lactic acid my RA goes way down to the negatives. Any suggestions or advice?
Thanks guys
I'm going to be brewing a clone of Stone's Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. I got the recipe from BYO's Classic Clone recipes. I use EZ water calculator to make my water adjustments and get the correct mash pH. The problem I am having is when I adjust my water with salts and lactic acid to get the ratios I want and correct mash pH, according to the spreadsheet my Residual Alkalinity is in the negatives (which I know is for pale beers). Long story short I am confused what to do and how to adjust this. I've read on here not to worry about RA anymore, but with my RA in the the area used mostly for pilsners, it's concerning.
The grain bill for this beer is:
16.5# 2-row
.5# Carapils
.5# Crystal malt (15 L)
2# flaked oats
1# chocolate malt
.25# roasted barley
.25 # black malt
mash water 6.52 gallons and sparge 3.52 gallons.
Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 35
Mg: 8
Na: 46
Cl: 77
SO4: 21 (listed as 7 on Ward Labs report so I multiplied by 3 as per EZ calc)
CaCO3: 90
Without water additions my mash pH is 5.67, so slightly high. I would like the chloride to sulfate ratio to obviously be on the chloride side. I notice that when I adjust my mash with lactic acid my RA goes way down to the negatives. Any suggestions or advice?
Thanks guys