IPA Water Profile Sanity Check - Phosphoric Question Too

Looking for some feedback...I've been reading tons on water treatment and I hopefully have my additions down. Can someone look this over for a FW Union Jack IPA?

Water is very alkaline:
Ca: 78
Mg: 15
Na: 20
K: 2
HCO3: 210
SO4: 27
Cl: 69
Alkalinity: 172
Total Hardness: 258

I'm shooting for a Firestone Walker mineral profile - around 120ppm sulfate and 100ppm chloride. Going to cut with 40% distilled and add 0.6g Gypsum and 0.25g Epsom Salt per gallon. Grain bill is 11.75# of 2-row, 2lb Munich, 0.75# Carapils, 0.25 Crystal 45. 14.1ml of 10% phosphoric acid in the mash shows 5.4 PH. I do have a PH meter and will take a reading. Then 22ml of 10% phosphoric in the sparge water.

I have two questions:

1. Is this too much phosphoric acid? I'm assuming it's not since it has a cleaner taste than the other acid options (I might try getting 85% phosphoric next time from dudadiesel).

2. If I'm batch sparging, do I still need to bring sparge water under 6? I assume that it's more critical for fly spargers.

Here's my Brun Water screenshot.

That is a substantial starting alkalinity and it would take a good dose of acid to neutralize. No surprises there. Other than the alkalinity and modest Mg, its decent water. I see that you are diluting to reduce Mg in this brew.

Yes, you definitely would want to acidify the sparge water. The starting alkalinity is far too high and its likely to cause an unwelcome rise in the mash pH and in the resulting batch of wort. The elevated wort pH could make the hop bittering more coarse and unpleasant.

PS: I see that you are using the User Custom water profile feature to input your own profile. You can rename the profile too, ie: Firestone Walker Pale or something like that.

BrewThruYou said:

1. Is this too much phosphoric acid? I'm assuming it's not since it has a cleaner taste than the other acid options (I might try getting 85% phosphoric next time from dudadiesel).

Click to expand...

I really don't know. I wouldn't think so given the huge amounts of phosphoric acid in soda pop but were I contemplating neutralizing that much alkalinity with phosphoric I think I would add drops of phosphoric acid to the water until the pH of the treated sample was around 5 (low enough to convert 96% of the carbo to carbon dioxide) and then taste it.

Thanks guys. I used 40% distilled since it seemed to hit the numbers pretty well. I could try upping the distilled water percentage to something like 60%, but it seems the reduction of phosphoric needed isn't that significant (14ml in mash to 9.4ml to keep mash ph at 5.4). I would probably then add a little CaCL2 to get the chloride up a little.

The big phosphoric addition is in the sparge water. I need almost 18ml in 4.4G to get sparge ph to 6 and 22ml to get it to 5.7.

I think I will try adding some drops of phosphoric to tap water, using my ph meter to get it to 5 and tasting the samples. If it tastes off, what are my other choices? I'd rather not go the more dangerous route of sulfuric or HCL and lactic and citric have those taste contributions.

I've been using 100% RO for the sparge with no acid addition. Seems to work well, my last sparge pH was about 5.6 using test strips. Single batch sparge.

I hit 5.38 on my mash pH...I think I'm getting the hang of this.