I keep reading on how you should only add pickling lime or baking soda to raise the alkalinity. But I haven't read about using those 2 minerals to add just calcium or sodium. Sometimes when using Bru'n Water you can only add so much CaCl2 and CaSO4 to bring the chloride and sulfates to where you want but are still short on calcium. So why couldn't you use pickling lime for an example to raise the calcium and then use lactic acid to bring the PH back down?
Counteracting Added Bicarbonates with Acid
- Thread starter Cardog
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You can, but don't try and elevate calcium needlessly. If you have over 40 ppm Ca in the mash or 50 ppm in an ale wort, you are good enough. The only reason to add more is to supply the other ions like SO4 and Cl that you want in your wort.
I have combined chalk and lactic acid to create a reliable source and strength of calcium lactate.
I have combined chalk and lactic acid to create a reliable source and strength of calcium lactate.
To realize the calcium and sodium content of quite a few of the Bru'n water profiles you must do exactly that. I suppose the first reason for not wanting to do that is that the whole idea of the profile is to lend authenticity to your brew but I can assure you that the water of Puterdorf contains no lactate so I think it is kind of defeating the purpose of the profile. In fact it is a little more complicated than this because while the water of Putersdorf didn't contain the calcium as the lactate it did contain it as the bicarbonate but the good brewers of Puterdorf removed the bicarbonate before they brewed with the water and in so doing took an equivalent (in the chemical sense) amount of calcium out too. Thus the profiles seem to represent pre treatment calcium levels but not pre treatment bicarbonate levels. ??? Other programs do the same thing.
Beyond the profile question there is the question as to how much lactate can you tolerate in your beer before its flavor become objectionable. If you want to add 5 mEq/L more calcium using lime or chalk you will need 5 mEq/L lactate to do that. This is in addition to lactate required for other purposes namely combating the alkalinity of the malts.
Thus I tell people that if you are trying to mimic a profile that requires you to use lime or chalk to hit a calcium target or sodium bicarbonate to hit a sodium target don't do it unless you have checked on the acid anion implications and can accept them.
Beyond the profile question there is the question as to how much lactate can you tolerate in your beer before its flavor become objectionable. If you want to add 5 mEq/L more calcium using lime or chalk you will need 5 mEq/L lactate to do that. This is in addition to lactate required for other purposes namely combating the alkalinity of the malts.
Thus I tell people that if you are trying to mimic a profile that requires you to use lime or chalk to hit a calcium target or sodium bicarbonate to hit a sodium target don't do it unless you have checked on the acid anion implications and can accept them.
Cardog
Well-Known Member
Thank you very much you 2. One more question for Martin..... I have the support version of Bru'n Water and when I add pickling lime it changes the sulfate and chloride in the finished water profile. It didn't do that in the free version, is it supposed to do that or am I missing something?
