Acidifying Top Up Water?

[jmhbutler]

So I want to brew a 10G batch on a setup which will only accommodate about 7-8G of output. Of course I'll have to treat my top of water to create the correct ion profile and boil to sanitize beforehand. My concern comes from a step that people seem to leave out. If post boil wort pH is around 5.0-5.3 (at temp) and my water will hang around 7.0, will the addition of the water not raise my wort pH creating a more basic wort and, as a result, a dull beer? Would it be in my best interest to acidify the top up water to the same pH range as the post boil wort? If this is not necessary can somebody please explain the logic why.

Cheers!

 

[ajdelange]

In general and theoretically speaking if you want no change in the wort pH you would need to set the top off water to the same pH as the wort you are adding it to. Practically speaking whether or not you need to do that depends on the relative buffering of the wort and water IOW the situation is the same as it is with sparge water. If topping off with RO or other water with low alkalinity there is no need to acidify. This is because the amount of acid required to bring such water to wort pH would be so small as to be unappreciable. If you are topping off with highly alkaline water you should add acid until the pH matches that of the wort but the match need not be that precise


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew