PH blues

I'm trying not to obsess over water chemistry but....

I'm planning to brew a dark mild (lots of dark malts) and according to Bru'n Water, I need to add bicarbonate to get my mash PH up to the right range. I can't do this using baking soda without blowing out the sodium levels so I'm left with adding chalk or Calcium Hydroxide (aka Pickling Lime).

I understand that chalk is pretty much insoluble in water, so it would seem like the calcium hydroxide would be the preferred method...except for the fact that I can't find the stuff anywhere, including my LHBS (they've never heard of it) and my usual online home brew suppliers.

So, what to you folks do when dealing with this problem? Do you just use the chalk in the mash and forget about the fact that it's not really going to dissolve in the water or do you all have access to a secret stash of calcium hydroxide? By the fact that the calcium hydroxide seems to be absent from the standard brewing supply inventory, I assume it's the former, but I thought I'd ask.

I thought gypsum was used for this?

I never screw with my water really. I have fairly hard, alkaline water (great for dark beers, not so great for pilsner/kolsch and other really light beers).

Unless you know you have incredibly soft water, I would not think you'd have to screw with it for a dark mild.

Calcium carbonate is added to the mash and under those conditions there is no problem as its' CO3- is made available to help balance the pH. Sodium bicarbonate is a poor choice IMO as it is too easy to overdo the sodium content and you still haven't added any calcium. Calcium hydroxide or pickling lime or "cal" can be found at outlets that have a good home canning department. However, it's stronger and more tricky to use than calcium carbonate so that is by far your best choice.

malkore said:

I thought gypsum was used for this?

Click to expand...

Not for dark beers it isn't.

Look for the pickling lime in the canning supplies at grocery stores. I had to ask the store manager at my local grocery store since I would have never found it where they were hiding it.

Chalk is an iffy solution for alkalinity addition, but you can half-ass it...literally. A number of resources indicate that the limited solubility can be somewhat overcome by assuming that chalk adds about half the alkalinity and calcium as it is calculated to provide. To do this, calculate the appropriate amount of chalk using Bru'n Water and then add twice as much to the mash. That might work.

Lime definitely works better, but as mentioned above, be very careful with the measurement and addition of lime. Its really strong. Add it only to the mash and start out with adding only about 3/4 of the amount and then check pH to see if you really need the rest.

Remember that alkalinity producers are not added to sparge water, even for dark beers.

Be sure to download version 1.7 and read up on using lime in the mash.

You could make a pH filter to raise the pH of your water as you fill your pot. Get a 10 inch filter housing and adapt the inlet down to 3/8 or 1/2 inch. Then use a filter cartridge like this http://www.thepurchaseadvantage.com/page/TPA/refillable_water_filters.html/FCECST10 and fill it with food grade calcite. the 3/8 line should give you enough contact time to raise the pH and a 50 lb. bag of calcite will last a long time. You could also make a 3 valve bypass for it so you could adjust the raise of the pH as well.

The calcite filter will last a long time. Unfortunately, it will do very little to affect pH. Calcite is calcium carbonate and its usually less soluble than the finely ground chalk that we typically see in the homebrew shop. We already know how well chalk works. It should only take a few days to get the pH where you want it with this filter.

Not sure if it would affect the wort but you could use magnesium oxide also. I work in the water filtration industry we use filters like that on a larger scale for whole house situations flowing 10+ gpm. Typically one bag of calcite can raise the pH by 1 to 2. Would magnesium oxide effect the wort?