Calcium carb for stouts and nut browns?

[smeltz]

Im planning on making these beers, but if my water source isn't too crazy low in pH should I add some sort of pH stabilizer? What's do you guys use? It would suck to brew 10gal and it be wasted just cuz I didn't add a little pH stabilizer. Does whirfloc help with pH at all?

Sorry, a lot of questions Thanks in advance!!

 

[LLBeanJ]

The pH of your water isn't important, it's the alkalinity. The mash will lower your water's pH, but the alkalinity will determine by how much. If you know your water's mineral profile, post it along with the question as to how to treat it in the brew science forum and I am sure you will get the help you seek.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Get Bru'nWater and take out the guess work. It's an Excel spreadsheet that helps you with you mineral additions and pH calcs for any given grain bill. Martin Brungard (sorry if I mangled your name, Martin) wrote it and it's super helpful. It has a bit of a learning curve but it's worth it. Martin hangs out alot in the Brew Science forum. He and AJ Delange are incredible resources for water chemistry.

 

[mabrungard]

Im planning on making these beers, but if my water source isn't too crazy low in pH should I add some sort of pH stabilizer? What's do you guys use? It would suck to brew 10gal and it be wasted just cuz I didn't add a little pH stabilizer. Does whirfloc help with pH at all?

Sorry, a lot of questions Thanks in advance!!

OH, you don't know how much I hate saying this, but if your water has really low alkalinity, the 5.2 Stabilizer is actually suitable for supplying alkalinity to mashing water. But you are actually better off using baking soda to provide that alkalinity...and its much cheaper too!!! Both add sodium to the water. But if your starting water has low sodium and you are only adding baking soda to the mash, then the amount of sodium that ends up in the beer may not be excessive. 50 ppm is OK, 100 ppm can be OK, and 150 ppm is getting kind of high. I find that sodium and roast grain flavors get along pretty well.

An important take away is that chalk (calcium carbonate) is NOT useful for adding alkalinity to mashing water since it takes forever (this means: longer than a typical mashing time) to dissolve. You won't be happy with the results when using chalk unless you are pre-dissolving the chalk into water with pressurized CO2. That is too much of a PITA for most folks.

Be sure you actually need extra alkalinity in your mashing water before you add it. Beers will almost always come out better with low than desirable alkalinity than higher than desirable alkalinity.

Enjoy!