Alkalinity neutralization in a Baltic Porter

[coolerking]

Hi everyone!

Im about to brew a Baltic Porter. My idea is to mash the grains (base malt - crystal malts), except for the roasted malts all together.
Then in the lauterin add the roast malts.
My question is the following:
I usualy add phosphoric acid to the HLT to neutralize alkalinity (to avoid tannin extraction), but in this case, I dont really know if this is necesary, because the roasted malts will drop the ph a lot!
Suggestions?

 

[VikeMan]

Tannin extraction is affected by pH and by temperature. An increase in either one will result in more tannins. Every wort and every beer has tannins from malt. It's just a question of how much.

So, I would recommend getting your base/crystal malts mash into a reasonable range, maybe no higher than 5.6.

But personally, I would mash it all together.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Similar question over in AHA forums: Alkalinity neutralization in a Baltic Porter

 

[VikeMan]

Similar question over in AHA forums: Alkalinity neutralization in a Baltic Porter

Crikey, it's an actual cut and paste. @coolerking did you not like the previous answers?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I usualy add phosphoric acid to the HLT to neutralize alkalinity (to avoid tannin extraction), but in this case, I dont really know if this is necesary, because the roasted malts will drop the ph a lot!

Many report that mash pH estimates in current recipe software are very accurate. I've used the pH estimation tool at Brewers Friend a couple of times and found it to accurate as well.

Adding dark grains late in the mash is a technique that was apparently 'made popular' in Brewing Better Beer (Strong, 2013). As mentioned in Brewing better Beer, the idea goes back further to articles on cold steeping as well an an article in Zymurgy magazine (Jan/Feb 2002 -"Cold Water Extraction of Dark Grains"). The Zymurgy article includes a flavor description, pH, and SRM contribution for a couple of malts and a couple of different steeping approaches.

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edited to add:

Suggestions?

Start with mashing all the grains. Use recipe software to model the necessary mash adjustments.

If you get undesired harshness, then explore the idea of steeping the dark malts for color / flavor.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

My intent with mentioning the AHA topic was to bring in some additional perspective on the topic.

Based on timestamps that I see, OP may have posted here first, then posted in AHA forums.