First time water chemistry

[Joejkd82]

Hey all,

I've been brewing with my well water up to this point and see fantastic efficiency in the grainfather with it. As flawed as it is, I get great mash efficiency and attenuation with it. It's just the high iron content leads me to believe it may part of the cause of some oxidation issues. I am trying to rule the water out (or in) among some other measures at packaging that aren't relevant to the scope of this thread.

I wish to purchase distilled water and build it up so I know it will be the same batch to batch, for later fine-tuning for my west coast style double IPA. My tap water is well water that is very high in soluble and insoluble FE as well as iron Ochre.

I've used 3 water calculators, and came up with the following additions. First, the recipe and volumes:

6 gal batch (lots of trub loss due to hop quantity)
14.5 lbs American 2-row
.5lbs carapils
.75lbs table sugar at flame out
90 minute boil
90min 2oz columbus
45min 1oz chinook
20min 1oz ea of centennial, chinook, columbus
whirlpool 1oz chinook


5.78 Gal mash
2.98 Gal sparge

Brewed using a grainfather.

Total additions of salts are:
13.6g Gypsum (9g in mash, 4.6g in sparge)
4.5g Calcium Chloride (3g in mash, 1.5g in sparge)
2ml Lactic Acid into the mash

Big lead up to a simple question. For the volume of distilled water in question, are the salts and acid addition sufficient to ensure a good mash ph? I do not have a ph tester yet and can't afford a good one for a while, so I need to be conservative and try to trust I'll land in a decent mash ph.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I don't think you will need any Lactic Acid addition in the mash.

 

[Joejkd82]

The calculators all placed my ph slightly high for the mash with the given salts, but only at about 5.62-5.7. That's why I added the modest addition of 2ml of acid.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

North American 2-Row brewers malt is highly acidic. I have data from Briess indicating that their version mashes in deionized water at an average of about 5.55 pH, and on top of this you are adding quite a load of pH lowering calcium. Do your calculators account for the specifics of this type of malt whereby to address it's inherently greater acidity than most other base malts?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Rahr 2-Row has been similarly reported to have this higher acidity characteristic.

The first observation is that the distilled water pH for the Rahr 2-row is surprisingly low for a pale malt. I also observed this when I used this malt before.

http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2011/02/01/calcium-and-magnesiums-effect-on-mash-ph/

 

[couchsending]

North American 2 Row can be all over the map when it comes to pH. For instance the Rahr 2 row malted in MN is generally .2ph lower than the stuff malted in Canada (Alberta I think). Malt Europe stuff from MT is pretty high, as are some bags of Great Western.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

North American 2 Row can be all over the map when it comes to pH. For instance the Rahr 2 row malted in MN is generally .2ph lower than the stuff malted in Canada (Alberta I think). Malt Europe stuff from MT is pretty high, as are some bags of Great Western.

Such variability is why I added "Kettle pH Made Easy" to my mash pH adjustment assistant spreadsheet "Mash Made Easy". Adjusting pH pre-boil is much easier and more reliable than adjusting it pre or during the mash step. The target ideal is 5.2 for pre-boil pH as measured at room temperature. Once the Wort is adjusted to a pH of 5.1 to 5.2 there will be very little if any additional pH drop witnessed across the boil. And heading into fermentation one should ideally have their Wort at 5.1 to 5.2 pH. Otherwise, if above 5.2 at the fermentation stage, the final beer pH may wind up being too high to prevent bacterial spoiling and premature off flavors thereby.

 

[VikeMan]

North American 2-Row brewers malt is highly acidic. I have data from Briess indicating that their version mashes in deionized water at an average of about 5.55 pH

The last time I tested Briess 2-Row Brewer's Malt, I got an average of pH 5.69 from two trial mashes (one averaged 5.70 and the other 5.69). (Distilled Water, 4 Liters per Kg, mashed at 145F, measured at room temp.)

 

[Joejkd82]

Sounds like I should be close enough without the lactic acid and with the salts I'll be using.

Thanks all