Building Water from RO for an Russian Imperial Stout

[nosoup4me]

I've recently switched from diluting my tap water with distilled to building my water from RO (my tap water fluctuates too much to be reliable).

So far I've been very happy with the results but this is my first attempt at a beer with a lot of roast malts, which is just pushing my PH way too low. I'm aiming for a range in the 5.5->5.6 to balance out some of the roast malts in the grain bill.

Using Brun'water on Black Balanced, I've come up with the following additions to the water (lots of Baking Soda and lots of Pickling Lime)... and I'm wondering if I'm putting too much in.

 

[sixhotdogneck]

How big is your grain bill and how much do you boil off? You have a total of 10.32 gallons of water for final volume of 5 gallons?

Unfortunately the spreadsheets available today cannot give completely accurate guidance as parameters for the specific malts you are using are not available.

10+ grams of alkalinity increasing salts seems like a lot but try some of the other calculators like Brewers Friend, MME, Proton Slinger, etc...

 

[nosoup4me]

23.5# of grain and 1.3 gallons a hour on a 90 minute boil. 7.50 beginning boil volume.

 

[Abilor]

My tap water varies tremendously seasonally here in Capital District NY. There's salt in the winter, run-off in spring, way too much chlorine in the hot summer, and decaying crap in the fall. I bit the bullet and start with 100% distilled now, and add salts in accordance with Bru'n Water. Every batch has been amazing since then. Probably overkill, but it's all in the name of SCIENCE! and beer.

 

[Big Monk]

I've recently switched from diluting my tap water with distilled to building my water from RO (my tap water fluctuates too much to be reliable).

So far I've been very happy with the results but this is my first attempt at a beer with a lot of roast malts, which is just pushing my PH way too low. I'm aiming for a range in the 5.5->5.6 to balance out some of the roast malts in the grain bill.

Using Brun'water on Black Balanced, I've come up with the following additions to the water (lots of Baking Soda and lots of Pickling Lime)... and I'm wondering if I'm putting too much in.

What is the pH estimation when you remove the baking soda and pickling lime? What does your grain bill look like?

 

[nosoup4me]

What is the pH estimation when you remove the baking soda and pickling lime? What does your grain bill look like?

It's 4.75 PH without adding bicarbonates. It's an RIS so it's a lot of roast malt

18# Maris
1.5# Roast Barley
1# Special B
.75# Flaked Barley
.5# Dark Choc
.5# Light Choc
.5# Caramunich

 

[Big Monk]

It's 4.75 PH without adding bicarbonates. It's an RIS so it's a lot of roast malt

18# Maris
1.5# Roast Barley
1# Special B
.75# Flaked Barley
.5# Dark Choc
.5# Light Choc
.5# Caramunich

The only thing I could suggest would be to use a base malt with a higher DI pH value and less roast and crystal all around.

I realize some people like a lot of roast in Stouts but it's never been my jam. I generally use Weyermann Pale Ale malt and no more than 15% combined roast and crystal malts in mine.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I doubt that it will hit 4.75 pH. More like 5.2 pH before any baking soda and/or pickling lime addition(s) would be my guess. This for a sample drawn at 60 minutes into the mash, and cooled to 68 degrees F.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

For perspective: pH 4.75 is 2.82 times more acidic than pH 5.2. Not by any means a trivial difference in acidity.