Hello all. Longtime lurker, first-time poster here at hbt. First of all, a brief but gracious "thank you" to the many of you here that have thus far unknowingly helped expand my brewing knowledge immensely (Yooper, Revvy, Kaiser, deathbrewer, AJ Delange, and Martin Brungard just to name a few).
I have been brewing all-grain for a couple of years now with generally decent results, but have recently decided that I want to improve my processes and brewing by improving my water chemistry modifications. I apologize for posting yet another request for help interpreting a water report here in the forums, but I genuinely want to learn more on the subject and would greatly appreciate any guidance as it pertains to my water profile.
From what I understand about water chemistry so far, the average pH of my water (9.19) seems rather high to begin with. What are your thoughts on using half (or even entirely) RO water instead, or will adding some acid malt and/or some lactic/phosphoric acid be enough to salvage my tap water undiluted? Obviously I'm aware this will largely depend on the composition of my grain bill, but I generally brew light/pale styles--commonly with wheat--so getting my mash pH low enough has likely been an issue for many of my beers prior. I do have Yooper/AJ's stickied RO water primer bookmarked so I know I could use that as a fall back plan, but if my tap water can be utilized effectively with some slight modifications, obviously that would be a more desirable solution. I am open to using either Bru'n Water or the EZ Water Calculator, but have included screenshots of my data inputted into Bru'n Water for reference. I would greatly appreciate a second (or third) pair of eyes to make sure that I have inputted values correctly, used the Ion Concentration Conversion Calculator correctly where applicable, and that everything looks "normal." The ion balance is .02 meq/L so if I entered everything correctly, it at least balances out. One quick question I have is my water report doesn't include Nitrite anywhere that I can see, so I put the value at 0 in my Water Input Report. Does that make sense or is there another approximate value that you would recommend inputting instead?
I've read AJ Delange's posts elsewhere where he asserts that using acidulated malt at 1% of grist lowers the mash pH by ~ .1, and I think he/others have stated not to use it at a rate of much more than 7% of grist. Can someone confirm this? For the sake of round numbers, let's say I had a grain bill of 10 pounds. I would use 1.6 ounces of acidulated malt over and above my original 10 pounds to lower the mash pH ~.1, correct?
A couple specific questions I have regarding acidifying the sparge water on that page are 1. if I'm using Phosphoric Acid 10%, for example, does using 21 mL of it in ~4 gallons of sparge water sound correct? 2. I understand Phosphoric Acid is pretty flavor neutral, but am I going to get any undesirable side effects from using that much?
Any help/advice that you can offer would be greatly appreciated and welcomed. If there's any other information that you need/would like to help tailor your response, please let me know and I would be happy to provide it. (Sorry for the wall of text, and if you've made it this far, thank you!) Thanks again for all your help and I look forward to your responses.
I have been brewing all-grain for a couple of years now with generally decent results, but have recently decided that I want to improve my processes and brewing by improving my water chemistry modifications. I apologize for posting yet another request for help interpreting a water report here in the forums, but I genuinely want to learn more on the subject and would greatly appreciate any guidance as it pertains to my water profile.
From what I understand about water chemistry so far, the average pH of my water (9.19) seems rather high to begin with. What are your thoughts on using half (or even entirely) RO water instead, or will adding some acid malt and/or some lactic/phosphoric acid be enough to salvage my tap water undiluted? Obviously I'm aware this will largely depend on the composition of my grain bill, but I generally brew light/pale styles--commonly with wheat--so getting my mash pH low enough has likely been an issue for many of my beers prior. I do have Yooper/AJ's stickied RO water primer bookmarked so I know I could use that as a fall back plan, but if my tap water can be utilized effectively with some slight modifications, obviously that would be a more desirable solution. I am open to using either Bru'n Water or the EZ Water Calculator, but have included screenshots of my data inputted into Bru'n Water for reference. I would greatly appreciate a second (or third) pair of eyes to make sure that I have inputted values correctly, used the Ion Concentration Conversion Calculator correctly where applicable, and that everything looks "normal." The ion balance is .02 meq/L so if I entered everything correctly, it at least balances out. One quick question I have is my water report doesn't include Nitrite anywhere that I can see, so I put the value at 0 in my Water Input Report. Does that make sense or is there another approximate value that you would recommend inputting instead?
I've read AJ Delange's posts elsewhere where he asserts that using acidulated malt at 1% of grist lowers the mash pH by ~ .1, and I think he/others have stated not to use it at a rate of much more than 7% of grist. Can someone confirm this? For the sake of round numbers, let's say I had a grain bill of 10 pounds. I would use 1.6 ounces of acidulated malt over and above my original 10 pounds to lower the mash pH ~.1, correct?
A couple specific questions I have regarding acidifying the sparge water on that page are 1. if I'm using Phosphoric Acid 10%, for example, does using 21 mL of it in ~4 gallons of sparge water sound correct? 2. I understand Phosphoric Acid is pretty flavor neutral, but am I going to get any undesirable side effects from using that much?
Any help/advice that you can offer would be greatly appreciated and welcomed. If there's any other information that you need/would like to help tailor your response, please let me know and I would be happy to provide it. (Sorry for the wall of text, and if you've made it this far, thank you!) Thanks again for all your help and I look forward to your responses.