I forgot 5.2!!!

This past Saturday was my first 10 gallon AG brewday, and after collecting my first runnings it dawned on me, I forgot to add 5.2 to my mash! Son of a gun! My water isn't terribly bad pH is around 7, my grainbill was 2-row, vienna, crystal 40L and a little victory. No real dark grains in the grist, but my question is would my mash still become acidic enoughto lower the pH into the 5.4-5.2 range?

Like I said my water isn't too bad, they only take their measurements every 3 years here, however, this happens to be the year they are taking said measurements, and they do it this month (October), so I need to write to the water company to get my report.

I'm more concerned with pH right now though, this brew was an APA, and IIRC the last time I plugged numbers into a water calculator my pH was 7 and I was good for ambers, anything 15 SRM and over.

Have you ever checked your pH after using 5.2? It's possible it wasn't doing anything at all. That's the case for me. Likely your pH was in range with just the grain.

Our water is roughly at a pH of 7 as well. We've never once used 5.2 and every single one has come out delicious!

I have 5.2, so I use it... but when I have forgotten to use it, there was no difference. I use water built from distilled.

If you hit your gravity and the wort didn't taste astringent, I wouldn't worry about it.

Your pH is not as important as the mineral content of your water. My pH is 8.7, but an all base malt mash easily reaches 5.4-5.5 since my water is not all that hard. I would say you're probably fine.

Thanks for the reassurance all, I just got my panties in a bunch because this was my first 10 gallon AG brew, and I don't want 10 gallons of crappy beer.

if you don't have a lot of alkaline hardness in the water, your mash 'should' turn out ok.

I DO have hard, alkaline water with a solid pH of 7.8, so especially for light colored beers, 5.2 helps me make better beer...no funny off flavors from a high mash pH.

I normally add 5.2 as insurance regardless of whether or not itis doing anything. When I enter my old water report into Palmer's spreadsheet ti gives me a balanced profile for an 11 SRM beer which is what my SRM is for the APA I brewed, however, I want to accentuate the hoppiness, right?

Then you need gypsum, not 5.2.