A 'ballpark' perspective on how weakly 'acidic' or 'basic' a couple malts are with respect to targeting pH 5.4

[Silver_Is_Money]

1) Tossing in ~1,000 g. (1 Kg.) of a typical 'Base Malt' representative is roughly the ballpark basic equivalent of tossing in 1 g. of Baking Soda.

2) Tossing in ~280 g. (0.28 Kg.) of a typical 'Black Patent' type malt is roughly the ballpark acidic equivalent of tossing in 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid.

 

[dmtaylor]

Crystal malts acidify as well, at least, according to Ray Daniels' Designing Great Beers. Please don't forget the original homebrewer gone sciencey. LOVE that book, memorized parts of it.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Crystal malts acidify as well, at least, according to Ray Daniels' Designing Great Beers.

At pH 5.4 I see Caramel/Crystal malts roughly (ballpark) as follows:

10L: ~1010 g. = 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid
20L: ~820 g. = 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid
40L: ~570 g. = 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid
60L: ~420 g. = 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid
80L: ~ 325 g. = 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid
120L: ~215 g. = 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid
140L: ~180 g. = 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

At pH 5.4 the following (rounded) relationships can be made, whereby to add perspective to post #1 in this thread:

0.96 g. of Baking soda is the basic "opposite" of 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid. At these qty.'s the two effectively cancel each other.
1.04 mL of 88% Lactic Acid is the acidic "opposite" of 1 g. of Baking Soda. At these qty's the two effectively cancel each other.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I should qualify/quantify/specify that all of the above "nominal" ballpark equivalences are unique to malts ground with a 2 roller mill gap setting of 0.032" (0.8 mm). Crush more and the acidic malts get more acidic, and the basic malts (basic with respect to pH 5.4) get more basic, per the direct experimental observation of Kai Troester. Crush less and the opposite happens, also per Kai Troester.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

At pH 5.4, ~35.4 g. Acid Malt (also called Acidulated, Sauermalz) = 1 mL of 88% Lactic Acid = 11.451 mEq.

There is no crush concern here as the lactic acid lies on the outer surface of the malted barley kernels and crush is thereby irrelevant. This (I.E., surface acid as opposed to internal) is reason for and the nature of the correction made to 'Mash Made Easy' resulting in version 9.90.