Help with water report

[beskone]

here's my local water report:

http://www.gswater.com/southwestCCR/

I've run the numbers through EZ Water and Bru'n Water. I'm going for a IPA profile.

EZ water kinda makes sense, Bru'n makes my head hurt.

I can't seem to make sense that I'd need in upwards of 6ml of 88∞ lactic acid to get my mash ph to the right place, that seems like too much.


Here's the EZ Water breakdown:

Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 51
Mg: 14
Na: 53
Cl: 58
SO4: 53
CaCO3: 190

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 4.61 / 7.37
RO or distilled %: 0% / 0%

Total Grain (lb): 14.8

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaSO4: 5 / 7.993492408
CaCl2: 0 / 0
MgSO4: 1 / 1.598698482
NaHCO3: 0 / 0
CaCO3: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid (ml): 5
Sauermalz (oz): 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 116 / 116
Mg: 19 / 19
Na: 53 / 53
Cl: 58 / 58
SO4: 235 / 235
Cl to SO4 Ratio: 0.25 / 0.25

Alkalinity (CaCO3): -146
RA: -240
Estimated pH: 5.47

This get's everything into the ranges, but I'm concerned about so much lactic acid and the crazy negative alkalinity and RA.

Thoughts?

 

[ajdelange]

You have a lot of alkalinity there. 190 ppm as CaCO3 is 3.8 mEq/L times 4.61 gal requires 56.6 mEq of acid. 6 mL of 88% lactic supplies 69.4 so the acid is a bit more that that required just to neutralize the water. The extra will go to neutralize base malt akalinity.

Don't worry about the negative alkalinity and RA. They really shouldn't be used for anything but pre-treatment water as all they tend to do is confuse people as you have seen.

 

[beskone]

so you don't think the 5ml of lactic is going to be too much? I'll just ignore that other stuff if the rest of the profile look alright.

 

[ajdelange]

No. In fact 5 mL won't, probably, be enough if you want a pH below 5. Without knowing exactly what you plan to do (and even if I did it is a bit difficult) but assuming that you will mash 80% base malt with 20% light crystal at the rate of 1 -1/3 qts/lb I'd expect mash pH to be about 5.6 at which pH the lactic would just about wipe out the water alkalinity (55 mEq) but the extra acid from the calcium and magnesium and the crystal malt just offset the acid requirement of the base malt (about 25 mEq/L). To get to pH 5.47, however, the base malt would require 53 mEq and you'd wind up shy by 34 mEq. This could be made up for by using 8 mL of lactic acid rather than 5. If you are concerned about flavor use phosphoric (about 90 mL of 10%) or better still dilute away at least half that alkalinity with a 1:1 RO water mix.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Hi guys, I'm late to the conversation but isn't it generally safe to say that adding 3-5ml of 88% Lactic per gallon won't impart a sour taste?

 

[mabrungard]

Whoa! 3 ml 88% lactic per gallon of water is producing over 800 ppm lactate. That is at least double the taste threshold. I'd say that about 1 ml 88% lactic per gallon of water is safely under the taste threshold.