fermenting at low pH

[inda_bebe]

can beer ferment at a low pH of 3? i will be using 20% acid malt to quickly sour a beer w/out bugs and sour mashing. the yeast ill be using is some kind of belgian. maybe a saison or belgian pale. No brett.

 

[Oldsock]

can beer ferment at a low pH of 3? i will be using 20% acid malt to quickly sour a beer w/out bugs and sour mashing. the yeast ill be using is some kind of belgian. maybe a saison or belgian pale. No brett.

I added 20% acid malt to a saison and the wort pH only went down to the mid-4s. The .1 pH drop per 1% acid malt only holds true right around mash pH. That's because pH is logarithmic (meaning if it takes 1% acid malt to drop from 5.4 to 5.3 it'd take 100% acid malt to drop from 3.4.3.3).

You can start seeing fermentation issues around a pH of 3.5, although some strains are better than others.

 

[inda_bebe]

Thanks for the reply. I just did a 50/50 pale and acid malt with no salt additions. So my OG is at 1.049 and pH 4.25. I added some yeast and ill see what happens in a week

 

[Oldsock]

Thanks for the reply. I just did a 50/50 pale and acid malt with no salt additions. So my OG is at 1.049 and pH 4.25. I added some yeast and ill see what happens in a week

Interested to see how much the pH drops.

Mine ended up quite sour just pitching Brett, but as my "Brett" gear is also my "sour" gear, hard to know for sure there was no bacteria in it.