novahokie09
Well-Known Member
I just finished listening to Brew Strong from 5/13/2013. Palmer spoke in length about their new findings for the upcoming Water book.
It sounds like the new paradigm in Water Chemistry will basically be controlling Mash pH. It sounds like salt additions will only be used for fine tuning well developed recipes, if at all. It seems this has been a slowly developing trend that started with rejecting city water profiles, to down playing sulfate/chloride ratio, and I believe this book maybe the final catalyst to stop worrying about salt additions altogether. The switch being to controlling residual alkalinity with the use of acids for pale beers and calcium hydroxide for darker beers to reach the target 5.2 - 5.6 mash temperature range.
The most interesting topic covered involved malt acidity and malt color trends. There seems to be a maximum malt acidity occuring between 325L - 350L, which coincides with a transition in the milliard reaction color shift from red to brown. The currently proposed mechanism claims there's a maximum acetic acid concentration resulting from the millard reactions occuring in the 325L - 350L range, and that the acetic acid concentration drops off in malts higher than 350L. John even stated that Kai did some research a few years ago and found that Special B has a higher mash acidity compared to Chocolate and Black malts. However, Jamil and Palmer indicisted that there's more involved than just color with Kai's experiment that was probably attributed by malster process and/or the grain's lactobacillus levels.
The other interesting finding was AJ's titrations results from several mashes using Calcium Carbonate to increase residual akalinity to counteract the darker malts acidification effects on mash pH. AJ's findings were that CaCO3 is poorly soluble without pressurizing the water. Secondly, he found that Chalk's alkalinity impact took nearly three hours to see significant increases in residual akalinity. Apparently, Ca(OH)2 is more effective, but still takes 10-15 minutes to show increases in residual akalinity in the mash.
I'm looking forward to the book even more after listening to the podcast.
It sounds like the new paradigm in Water Chemistry will basically be controlling Mash pH. It sounds like salt additions will only be used for fine tuning well developed recipes, if at all. It seems this has been a slowly developing trend that started with rejecting city water profiles, to down playing sulfate/chloride ratio, and I believe this book maybe the final catalyst to stop worrying about salt additions altogether. The switch being to controlling residual alkalinity with the use of acids for pale beers and calcium hydroxide for darker beers to reach the target 5.2 - 5.6 mash temperature range.
The most interesting topic covered involved malt acidity and malt color trends. There seems to be a maximum malt acidity occuring between 325L - 350L, which coincides with a transition in the milliard reaction color shift from red to brown. The currently proposed mechanism claims there's a maximum acetic acid concentration resulting from the millard reactions occuring in the 325L - 350L range, and that the acetic acid concentration drops off in malts higher than 350L. John even stated that Kai did some research a few years ago and found that Special B has a higher mash acidity compared to Chocolate and Black malts. However, Jamil and Palmer indicisted that there's more involved than just color with Kai's experiment that was probably attributed by malster process and/or the grain's lactobacillus levels.
The other interesting finding was AJ's titrations results from several mashes using Calcium Carbonate to increase residual akalinity to counteract the darker malts acidification effects on mash pH. AJ's findings were that CaCO3 is poorly soluble without pressurizing the water. Secondly, he found that Chalk's alkalinity impact took nearly three hours to see significant increases in residual akalinity. Apparently, Ca(OH)2 is more effective, but still takes 10-15 minutes to show increases in residual akalinity in the mash.
I'm looking forward to the book even more after listening to the podcast.