2 Brews, need suggestions for additions for PH

[PsychoBiter]

We are brewing 2 BIAB batches this weekend and the next step we are taking to improve our beers, is water chemistry.

Hopefully I have included everything, I am sorry if I missed something.
I have looked a few calculators, but wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly because I really don't know where the PH needs to be....is in the range of 5.4-5.6 good for any beer or do certain beers do better at a more specific PH?

Can someone tell me what additives and how much to add for these beers?

We use RO water and I have found out the following:
PH 6.9
Calcium ND (non detectable)
Magnesium ND
Sodium 2.4mg/L
Chloride ND
Sulphate ND
Alaklinity ND

Beers we are brewing:
Wheat beer

5.25lbs of 2 Row
1.5lbs of Munich Malt
7.25lbs of white wheat

8.8 total gallons of water going into a full volume mash, no sparging.

IPA
18lbs of 2Row
.75lbs of Crystal Malt 40
.75 lbs of Carapils

10.25 gallons of water going into a full volume mash, no sparging.



Thanks for the help.

 

[ajdelange]

For the wheat beer use 1/2 - 1/4 tsp calcium chloride per gallon and add 1 -2% sauermalz to the grain bill. For the IPA see the Primer at the top of the thread. These recommendations should get you in the ballpark. If you are going to be serious about this you really should get a pH meter so you can see if your pH does indeed fall into the proper range. In general lager mashes are set for a slightly higher pH than ales but there are guys here who will tell you its the other way round. The interpretation of that is that you will have to decide for yourself.

 

[PsychoBiter]

Thanks, so just the baseline "Add 1 tsp of calcium chloride dihydrate (what your LHBS sells) to each 5 gallons of water treated. Add 2% sauermalz to the grist." for the IPA?

 

[ajdelange]

If I could edit it I'd say start with 1/2 tsp. People wanted lots of salts in their IPAs at the time I wrote that but I think they now understand that less is often better. Also keep in mind that most people want some sulfate in an IPA and while you may not be one of them it is likely that you will be so you might want to start with 1/2 tsp each of CaCl2 and CaSO4. The conservative approach is to start without the sulfate and then do taste tests on the finished beer.

 

[bigdaddybrew]

The Brun'water spreadsheet works well for me. I get good results using it to estimate mash ph but I don't have a ph meter. I like to be on the lower end for my lighter colored beers 5.2 to 5.3 it seems to make them brighter. In my darker beer 5.4 to 5.5 seems to make them smoother. I use R/O water. I add 1/2 tsp Gypsum 1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride and a 1/4 tsp of sea salt for 5 gallons of mash water. I get this basic profile...
Ca 49
Mg 0
SO4 59
Na 31
Cl 91
HCO3 0
ALK 0
Then I enter my grain bill and mash thickness into the spreadsheet and make adjustments using Phosphoric acid or Pickling lime to get a predicted mash ph. To accenuate the bitterness you can add more Gypsum. I use the same profile for the sparge water but do not add any Pickling lime. You can measure the ph of the sparge water and add acid if you want to match your mash ph but I batch sparge and this profile has no buffering capacity so I haven't bothered.