Adding acidulated malt to an existing recipe

[yyvjpv]

I am going to brewing this weekend, and after having the recipe and my water profile looked at was told that adding .5 lbs of acidulated malt would help get the mash pH in the right place. I'm curious if the acid malt is added to the existing grist with no adjustment, or should I take away the half pound from one of the other grains I'm using? The original recipe didn't call for acid malt at all. I guess an extra half a pound in a five gallon batch isn't going to change the gravity all that much, is it?

 

[goovaerl92]

You are correct in assuming that the extra .5 lb isn't going to change the gravity drastically. What is the recipe? That will help us decide if removing part of another grain is really necessary. Generally speaking, however, just tacking the acid malt on at the end will not have any adverse affects as long as you stay in the neighborhood of .25 to .5 of a pound ( or under 5% of the grain bill).

Cheers!

 

[yyvjpv]

You are correct in assuming that the extra .5 lb isn't going to change the gravity drastically. What is the recipe? That will help us decide if removing part of another grain is really necessary. Generally speaking, however, just tacking the acid malt on at the end will not have any adverse affects as long as you stay in the neighborhood of .25 to .5 of a pound ( or under 5% of the grain bill).

Cheers!

Thanks! The recipe is as follows:


3.3# Light LME
3# Wheat DME
1# grain (.5 Durst Vienna; .5 malted Wheat)
.5 oz Hallertau Tradition hops 60 min
.5 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker hops 35 min
.5 oz Citra hops 0 min
.5 oz organic sweet basil
1/4# Wildflower honey
1/2 peel of organic lemon peel, no pith


You mention tacking on at the end, do you mean I wouldn't steep it with the rest of the grains but add it separately? Or did you just mean add it along with everything else?

Thanks again!

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

isn't adding that much gonna REALLY "twang" the flavor? I used it last night in a recipe and it was 2 ounces.

 

[frazier]

I'd skip the acid malt. You're only mashing 1 pound of grain after all. Who told you to add half a pound???

 

[chickypad]

Yeah, wondering about your water and what mash volume were you planning that it said you needed a half lb of acid malt to get the pH right. That's a huge amount for such a small mash. Rather than do that I'd just use 1.5-2 qts of spring water then sparge with the same.

 

[yyvjpv]

I'd skip the acid malt. You're only mashing 1 pound of grain after all. Who told you to add half a pound???

Someone (can't quite recall who off the top of my head) on this forum, after I posted my water info. My pH is 7.7 they said that would bring it down to the ideal pH. Not sure that it makes a difference but I'm brewing a wit.

EDIT: looked back over my thread history and the person who suggested a half pound of acid malt only had my water info, not the recipe I was working with. I posted my water details and said I wanted to brew a wit (didn't specify extract, all grain or partial mash, and didn't put any of the ingredients.) So I guess I need to remember to be very specific when asking for advice as it appears the answer might have been much different if he'd seen what I was putting into the kettle. My bad! Glad I asked here before just dumping it in though!

 

[yyvjpv]

Yeah, wondering about your water and what mash volume were you planning that it said you needed a half lb of acid malt to get the pH right. That's a huge amount for such a small mash. Rather than do that I'd just use 1.5-2 qts of spring water then sparge with the same.

Well that seems much easier! Thanks. So no acid malt at all then? I'm sweating the high pH, and the spring water I picked up at the grocery store isn't much lower.

 

[chickypad]

You can't go by the pH of the water to determine what the mash pH will be, it's more about the buffering power of the water. For example my tap water pH (per ward labs) is about 9, but it is very soft and very low alkalinity, so even with an all base malt beer my mash pH's are almost in range and I need very little acid malt. If you don't know the mineral content, alkalinity of your water, etc. then you can't really do the calculations. I'm far from a water expert so this is a very basic explanation based on how I understand things. For more info check out the brewing science forum (there's a water primer sticky) and also Martin's excellent Bru'n water knowledge page. You can also download the Bru'n water software there.

 

[yyvjpv]

You can't go by the pH of the water to determine what the mash pH will be, it's more about the buffering power of the water. For example my tap water pH (per ward labs) is about 9, but it is very soft and very low alkalinity, so even with an all base malt beer my mash pH's are almost in range and I need very little acid malt. If you don't know the mineral content, alkalinity of your water, etc. then you can't really do the calculations. I'm far from a water expert so this is a very basic explanation based on how I understand things. For more info check out the brewing science forum (there's a water primer sticky) and also Martin's excellent Bru'n water knowledge page. You can also download the Bru'n water software there.

I was able to get the rest of the details, not just the pH:

Calcium 50 mg/L
Magnesium 14 mg/L
Sodium 8.1 mg/L
Sulphate 46 mg/L
Alkalinity 143 mg/L CaCO3
EDTA Hardness 184 mg/L CaCO3
pH 7.7 pH units

I tried the Bru'n water spreadhseet and plugged this stuff in. I'm embarrassed to admit even after looking at it several times I can't make any sense of the thing. It sounds like other people find it easy to work with, so I'm beginning to wonder if I've suffered a series of mild strokes or something, but I look at it and I just go cross-eyed.

 

[chickypad]

I actually don't have Bru'n water, I use EZ water or Brewer's friend because those are what I started with and they seem to do well enough. With that tiny of a mash I honestly probably wouldn't bother too much with water, but for the sake of the exercise I'm getting that you need like 1/2 oz of acidulated malt to hit mash pH of 5.5 (with 1.5 qt mash).

 

[yyvjpv]

I actually don't have Bru'n water, I use EZ water or Brewer's friend because those are what I started with and they seem to do well enough. With that tiny of a mash I honestly probably wouldn't bother too much with water, but for the sake of the exercise I'm getting that you need like 1/2 oz of acidulated malt to hit mash pH of 5.5 (with 1.5 qt mash).

Well, thanks for the information, and all the back and forth. Much appreciated.