% (weight) lactic acid in Bestmalz Sauermalz (acid malt)?

[Gadjobrinus]

Our store is out of acid malt. Will need to convert to ml 88% lactic acid, but don't know the actual weight % of lactic acid in this particular brand of acid malt. I've seen ranges from 2-3%, which is significant enough to want to know the actual in this particular malt. Thanks.

 

[VikeMan]

It's even worse than trying to find the acid content of a particular maltster's acid malt. It's not even consistent from batch to batch from the same maltster. It may not even be consistent within a batch, given the way it is made. Bestmalz specifies a "wort pH" range of 3.5 to 4.5. By wort pH, I assume they mean Di pH (i.e. pH in distilled/deionized water). That's a pretty wide range. Unless there's a desire/need for Reinheitsgebot compliance, I personally think acid malt is an odd way to go about acidification, because of the lack of precision.

The good news here is that with 88% lactic acid, you should be able to get a more consistent mash pH than you were able to get with the acid malt. I'd recommend assuming you had been getting about 2.5% acid by weight (a nice middle-ish value to minimize the potential error), and go from there.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

It's even worse than trying to find the acid content of a particular maltster's acid malt. It's not even consistent from batch to batch from the same maltster. It may not even be consistent within a batch, given the way it is made. Bestmalz specifies a "wort pH" range of 3.5 to 4.5. By wort pH, I assume they mean Di pH (i.e. pH in distilled/deionized water). That's a pretty wide range. Unless there's a desire/need for Reinheitsgebot compliance, I personally think acid malt is an odd way to go about acidification, because of the lack of precision.

The good news here is that with 88% lactic acid, you should be able to get a more consistent mash pH than you were able to get with the acid malt. I'd recommend assuming you had been getting about 2.5% acid by weight (a nice middle-ish value to minimize the potential error), and go from there.

Thanks, makes sense. I'll just use the lactic 88%.

A more general question. First two lagers in 20+ years, I believe. For a festbier I just intend to build with RO for Ca 58, Na 10.4, SO4 38.3, Cl 89.9. The grist will be 83.3% Avangard Pilsner (1.5 L) and 16.7% Avangard Munich Light (8.5 L). I don't intend to use anything other than RO in the sparge. I no longer have a pH meter, though will likely be picking one up.

Just a check: for 6 gallons of mash water, Brewer's Friend calculator is giving me 2.53 ml lactic 88% for a mash pH of 5.4. Does that check out?

 

[VikeMan]

<deleted original response due to realized brain fart>

It will depend on how much malt you're using, but yes, that looks about ballpark right.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

<deleted original response due to realized brain fart>

It will depend on how much malt you're using, but yes, that looks about ballpark right.

The 6 gallons mash water is actually mash + additions needed to maintain and/or correct temps, so it's inexact as to how much water. But for OG 1.056, mash-in 3.5 gallons, it's 8.75 lbs pilsner and 1.75 lbs light munich.

Edit: Thanks for the edit. Do these amounts still suggest we're close?

 

[VikeMan]

With 3.5 gallons of strike water with the profile you stated, plus 8.75 lbs pils, 1.75 lbs munich and 2.53 ml 88% lactic acid, BrewCipher predicts a 5.37 mash pH. (And a drop to about 5.29 after adding the rest of the 6 gallons.) But please note that I don't have DI pH or buffering capacity data for the Avangard malts specifically, so I used generic pils and munich numbers.

To target 5.4 initially, I would only add only 2.1 ml lactic acid, but we're kind chasing an illusion of accuracy at this point.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

With 3.5 gallons of strike water with the profile you stated, plus 8.75 lbs pils, 1.75 lbs munich and 2.53 ml 88% lactic acid, BrewCipher predicts a 5.37 mash pH. (And a drop to about 5.29 after adding the rest of the 6 gallons.) But please note that I don't have DI pH or buffering capacity data for the Avangard malts specifically, so I used generic pils and munich numbers.

To target 5.4 initially, I would only add only 2.1 ml lactic acid, but we're kind chasing an illusion of accuracy at this point.

Thanks much. Yeah, I should just bite the bullet and get the meter. Helpful though, appreciate it.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

With 3.5 gallons of strike water with the profile you stated, plus 8.75 lbs pils, 1.75 lbs munich and 2.53 ml 88% lactic acid, BrewCipher predicts a 5.37 mash pH. (And a drop to about 5.29 after adding the rest of the 6 gallons.) But please note that I don't have DI pH or buffering capacity data for the Avangard malts specifically, so I used generic pils and munich numbers.

To target 5.4 initially, I would only add only 2.1 ml lactic acid, but we're kind chasing an illusion of accuracy at this point.

Just to clarify, you'd add 2.1 to the initial 3.5 gallons (or 0.6 ml/gallon initial mash water), then add in the remainder of any mash water, un-acidified?

 

[VikeMan]

Just to clarify, you'd add 2.1 to the initial 3.5 gallons (or 0.6 ml/gallon initial mash water), then add in the remainder of any mash water, un-acidified?

Yes.