I live in an area with very hard water, bicarbonate level is about 498ppm.
Other salts make the water fairly similar to burton water
I have had success with darker beers, brown ales porters etc, but never had as much success with pale ales, and am quite new to looking at the water chemistry side of things, (for brewing ales and dark beers, I always understood that hard water is good).
I have tried using bottled spring water as part of the recipe, which lowers bicarbonate, but this still has typical values around the 150 mark, so overall bicarbonate is still 300+
RO or distilled water seems difficult to get hold of in the UK, at least at sensible prices, but would the addition of lactic acid instead do the job for me ? and if so, will the proportion I need to add put my wort pH in the right zone ?
i realise that acid + carbonate will give salt + water + carbon dioxide, so i guess i will be left with a small percentage of lactate salt (in solution ?) which would have no perceptible flavour ?
Other salts make the water fairly similar to burton water
I have had success with darker beers, brown ales porters etc, but never had as much success with pale ales, and am quite new to looking at the water chemistry side of things, (for brewing ales and dark beers, I always understood that hard water is good).
I have tried using bottled spring water as part of the recipe, which lowers bicarbonate, but this still has typical values around the 150 mark, so overall bicarbonate is still 300+
RO or distilled water seems difficult to get hold of in the UK, at least at sensible prices, but would the addition of lactic acid instead do the job for me ? and if so, will the proportion I need to add put my wort pH in the right zone ?
i realise that acid + carbonate will give salt + water + carbon dioxide, so i guess i will be left with a small percentage of lactate salt (in solution ?) which would have no perceptible flavour ?