Water Treatment

I recently bought John Palmer's book "Water, a Comprehensive Guide for Brewers".

Great book, but it got really technical and I was lost at parts.

I then went over to the Bru'n Water website. I read the Water Knowledge page. A lot of the information there seems almost like it came from the book (or vice versa, or they had the same sources for their research). But the website was much more condensed and easier to understand. It actually made a lot of what I read in the book a bit clearer to me.

Anyways, I was finally able to get someone on the phone from my city's Water Work's department and had them provide me with information on some of the minerals that weren't listed in the most recent consumer report on water quality.

I have been getting really low conversion efficiency lately, even after paying really close attention to water volumes and grain crush. I did the math, and if I don't treat the water at all the pH of my IPA mash is sitting at 5.9, which is a bit high.

The bicarbonate in my water supply is really high which is keeping the pH high. I found that I need to add 3.2 ml of Lactic Acid to my mash to get the pH down where I need it.

That comes out to about .4 ml/L.

Is that going to impact flavor? I've used lactic acid in hefeweizens before and a little bit goes a long way. Anyone have experience with lactic acid?

It can get pretty sour pretty quickly in my experience. I really prefer phosphoric acid, there is no flavor component I have ever been able to detect at the low levels used in brewing water adjustment. I got mine here:

http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=FGphos&gclid=CJTzpu_e8sgCFQaTaQoddSkHRQ

0.4mL/L sounds like a huge amount to me. Are you sure you ran this through the calculator correctly? Do you have the right water volumes and everything? You definitely don't need a pH of 5.2 to get good mash efficiency, and I usually target 5.4 to 5.5.

According to Scott from Bertus Brewery, just add 2-4% acidulated malt to drop PH by ~.3
(http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2012/02/water-chemistry-how-to-build-your-water.html)

Might be a simple solution to your problem.

philosofool said:

0.4mL/L sounds like a huge amount to me. Are you sure you ran this through the calculator correctly? Do you have the right water volumes and everything? You definitely don't need a pH of 5.2 to get good mash efficiency, and I usually target 5.4 to 5.5.

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Pretty sure. Bicarbonate amounts were 47.6 ppm, the pH of my water out of my tap is at 9.3.

I'll probably follow other posters recommendation on phosphoric acid.

Wait! your bicarb concentration in your tap water is 47 ppm?? That isn't very high, so that must be a misprint.

0.4 mL/L of 88% lactic is likely to create flavor impacts and you would be wise to employ phosphoric in that case. Be aware that acid malt adds lactic acid and it can also be overused which can produce the same flavor impact.

Yes, information from the Bru'n Water site was used in the Water book with my permission. AJ DeLange and I were the technical editors for the book.

IowaHomeBrewer said:

Pretty sure. Bicarbonate amounts were 47.6 ppm, the pH of my water out of my tap is at 9.3.

I'll probably follow other posters recommendation on phosphoric acid.

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That is not very high. 150 ppm CA or would almost totally neutralize it, as would 0.1mL/L lactic. Remember that you need 1/10th as much acid to lower pH from 9 to 8 as you do from 8 to 7 and pH 7 is 0.1 ppm.

Perhaps the fact that I BIAB in a single vessel is making the numbers just seem weird?

I increased gypsum addition to 14.3 grams and puts my Ca at 146.5 PPM and I am able to completely eliminate the Lactic Acid and the PH should come in around 5.5.

Am I correct in assuming since the mash is more heavily diluted with water it requires more additions to bring the pH down?

Try acidulated malts. Should only take a few ounces to bring your ph down.

IowaHomeBrewer said:

Am I correct in assuming since the mash is more heavily diluted with water it requires more additions to bring the pH down?

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That is correct. The malt can only supply so much acidity and if you combine that limited amount of acidity with more water, you can probably see that the mixture is going to not have as much acidity (which will generally be evidenced by the pH). Mashing at a lower water/grist ratio can help lower mash pH, but it can only get you so far. Acidification is a necessary component of all brewing.