sankenship
Member
Hi all - I've gotten to the point in my brewing where I want to start focusing on my water profile. I'm building the profile using distilled water. I'm using Bru'n water and following the Pale Ale profile to make a DIPA.
I have all the ingredients and I've built out the profile, but the thing that's hanging me up is the bicarbonate. According to Bru'n calculator Bicarbonate is generally undesirable in beer. The pale ale profile, however, lists target bicarbonate as 110 ppm. When I add the baking soda to get to the target range, my overall pH is 5.6. So, I'm using lactic acid to bring it down to 5.2 which brings the bicarbonate to -81. I'm so confused. I know I'm giving specific details about Bru'n water - but my general question I guess is - should I use baking soda in my water profile? If so should I also use lactic acid? Is having a negative bicarbonate number a bad thing? I show my alkalinity as -67. Is that bad?
Sorry for all the meandering and multiple questions. I just can't wrap my head around this water stuff...
Thanks a lot.
I have all the ingredients and I've built out the profile, but the thing that's hanging me up is the bicarbonate. According to Bru'n calculator Bicarbonate is generally undesirable in beer. The pale ale profile, however, lists target bicarbonate as 110 ppm. When I add the baking soda to get to the target range, my overall pH is 5.6. So, I'm using lactic acid to bring it down to 5.2 which brings the bicarbonate to -81. I'm so confused. I know I'm giving specific details about Bru'n water - but my general question I guess is - should I use baking soda in my water profile? If so should I also use lactic acid? Is having a negative bicarbonate number a bad thing? I show my alkalinity as -67. Is that bad?
Sorry for all the meandering and multiple questions. I just can't wrap my head around this water stuff...
Thanks a lot.