Base Malt for Grist affect

[ike8228]

When calculating my potential ph for grist do I include only the base malt or everything? The recipe calls for 10lbs 2-row 8 oz of carapils and white wheat, 1 lb flaked wheat and oats, 4 oz of honey malt. Are those considered base Malts or specialty and which do I include in my calculator?

Please and thank you!

 

[Coastalbrew]

My guess is that this is calculator specific. I use brun'water, and I enter all my grains and their weights. There are also different categories to put the grains in based on their color. Other calculators may be different though.

 

[VikeMan]

Every grain in the mash affects the pH, if that's what you're asking.

As for the differences between base malts, etc., from your list...

2-Row: Base Malt
Carapils: Specialty/Crystal/Caramel Malt
White Wheat: Assuming this is White Wheat Malt, it's a Base Malt. But you calculator might have another category for it.
Flaked Wheat: Not a malt at all, but an adjunct. Where it goes depends on your calculator
Flaked Oats: Ditto
Honey Malt: I'd call it a specialty malt. But again, depends on your calculator.

What calculator are you using?

 

[ike8228]

Brewers friend

It only gives base, crystal, roasted and acidulated as options.

I don’t have a personal computer so I use my phone. I can’t seem to get ez or bru’n to work in my phone.

 

[VikeMan]

Brewers friend

It only gives base, crystal, roasted and acidulated as options.

I don’t have a personal computer so I use my phone. I can’t seem to get ez or bru’n to work in my phone.

I can't imagine getting a very good prediction (with your grains) and only those options. Sorry.

If you post your water profile, your target pH, and perhaps something about your preferences (e.g. chlorides vs sulfates) I'd be willing to run it through my sheet and give you a couple options.

ETA: and the amount of water you plan to mash with.

 

[ike8228]

I appreciate that. Looking to buy a house soon and plan to build a spare garage as a brewery with a little desk/office and computer, but baby steps.

NEIPA Juicy 2:1 Chloride:Sulfate
Target 5.4-5.5
8 gallons all distilled (5-5.5 gallon batch)
But I put 7 in the calculator to account for boil off. 4 in mash, 4 in sparge.
Calcium chloride 7.5g
Gypsum 2.5g
Epsom Salt 1.75g
Canned Salt 1g
Citric Acid around 4ml as needed to balance (for citrus)
Acidulated Malt .2lbs (currently)
I’ll have baking soda on the side as well if I need to go the other way. I’m ok with a little sodium in my beers.

10lb 2-row
1lb flaked wheat
1lb flaked oats
.5lb White Wheat Malt
.5lb Carapils
.25lb Honey Malt

Don’t think you need all the hops and yeast.

This the mineral content I come up with
Calcium 99
Magnesium 6.5
Sulfate 78.5
Chloride 159.5
Sodium unknown atm

 

[VikeMan]

I'm assuming that your canned salt is NaCl.

If you were to add all of your salts to the 4 gallons of strike water, and also use the 0.2 lbs acidulated malt in the mash, my sheet predicts a mash pH of 5.37. Note: that's without citric acid (which my sheet doesn't do anyway), and which it doesn't appear you'd need. FWIW, I could be wrong, but I would not expect a small amount of it to give your beer a citrus flavor. (To test that, you could take a pint of IPA, add an equivalent amount of citric acid to it, and taste.)

Then you could sparge with untreated distilled water.

Let me know if you want me to run any variations on this.

ETA: I missed that you had provided a target of 5.4-5.5. Decreasing acidulated malt to 2 ounces would change the pH prediction to 5.43.

 

[Coastalbrew]

One thing I've read about adding table salt/NACl is to make sure to use non iodized salt, FYI

 

[ike8228]

Because I’m going to do a Juicy style NEIPA I figure citric would be a better choice than lactic for a potential flavor that complemented it. Wouldn’t distilled water need to be treated a little for sparge? I know you want less than 6, and distilled is usually around 5.8. Would that potentially raise the overall ph up from that 5.4ish to like 5.55-5.6? Or would it not mater after the mash. This is first batch of actually controlling my water and additions. All my other batches so far have been just bottled spring water with nothing measured or changed.

 

[VikeMan]

Wouldn’t distilled water need to be treated a little for sparge?

Nope! Distilled water has no buffering capacity, so it doesn't influence the pH of the runoff except by dilution, but that effect isn't significant.

 

[RCope]

I use Brewer's Friend exclusively (for years) and I simply put in the amounts of each specific grain into the recipe builder and it spits out the expected pH. I then link it to the water calculator and add in my salts for the profile I want (I use RO water). I don't see why it wouldn't work on your phone.

FWIW, your grain bill and water additions are very similar to most of my NEIPA recipes and all you will need is 2-3oz of acidulated. No other acid. I do full volume BIAB, but I don't think it would affect the overall pH outcome with mash and sparge. I don't think adding citric acid will give you a "citrus" flavor. Thats the job of the hops . Cheers!

 

[ike8228]

Thanks I’ll keep that in mind. I do use brewers friends website on my phone. It worked pretty good, just not as many grain options, that’s why I asked. I haven’t been able to get EZ and bruN to work. Seems those are xcel download spreadsheets. The brewers friend app doesn’t seem to do water calcs either. It’s 2020 something like this should be on an app.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Brewer's friend has a simple water calculator and an advanced calculator in the all grain tools.