First Time Using Bru'n Water

[Uhthoff]

Hello all. After having a lot of water issues I am taking the advice given on here and I am trying Bru'n Water for the first time. I will be brewing a 10 gallon batch Raspberry wheat that I have made several time before. I was hoping for a little feedback before I brew. Mostly concerned with the negative value for bicarbonate and also the heavy use of phosphoric acid. I have scoured the posts on here and I think I'm ok but would really appreciate some feedback.

Calcium 70
Magnesium 0
Sodium 8
Sulphate 53
Chloride 88
Bicarbonate -54 (negative)

Gypsum- 0.35g/gal
Calcium Chloride- 0.5g/gal

Phosphoric Acid- 4ml/gal

Estimated Mash ph - 5.34

Thanks!

 

[mabrungard]

The negative bicarbonate value means that your grist required extra acidity to bring the mash pH low enough. This is common when your grist is fairly pale colored. The amount of phosphoric is trivial. I'm assuming that is probably 10% concentration? In any case, phosphoric acid has little negative effect on beer flavor.

 

[ajdelange]

What he means to say is that your grist and water combined have a net proton deficit which has to be overcome by the addition of the phosphoric acid. The proton surfeit of the acid was more than the proton deficit of the water meaning that water plus acid has a proton surfeit. The program expresses the equivalence of the surfeit as the mass of bicarbonate with equal equivalence (magnitude) and reports it as negative bicarbonate. You aren't the first one to be confused by this.

 

[Homercidal]

What he means to say is that your grist and water combined have a net proton deficit which has to be overcome by the addition of the phosphoric acid. The proton surfeit of the acid was more than the proton deficit of the water meaning that water plus acid has a proton surfeit. The program expresses the equivalence of the surfeit as the mass of bicarbonate with equal equivalence (magnitude) and reports it as negative bicarbonate. You aren't the first one to be confused by this.

Thanks for clearing that up, AJ!

OP, that is normal for a pale beer. I was kind of surprised at the amount of phos added, but then realized, as Martin pointed out, that it's probably 10% solution, whereas I dilute mine to a 44% solution (I bought a bottle of 88% Food Grade). So then the quick math in my head made it look very reasonable.

 

[Uhthoff]

Ok great, thanks for the input. Yes I am using 10%. I am brewing tomorrow so I am excited to see the results.