high bicarbonate water for belgian beers

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andrea93

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hi!
a lot of my beers are belgian-style beers, here there's my tap water profile:
calcium 74ppm
magnesium 19ppm
sodium 17ppm
chloride 25ppm
sulfate 34ppm
bicarbonate 294ppm

since all the ions (except bicarbonate) are in the right range, can i brew belgian-style beers achieving the right mash ph using only lactic acid, or must i diluite my tap water with ro?
i mean, have bicarobanates got flavor impact in the final beer?
 
hi!
a lot of my beers are belgian-style beers, here there's my tap water profile:
calcium 74ppm
magnesium 19ppm
sodium 17ppm
chloride 25ppm
sulfate 34ppm
bicarbonate 294ppm

since all the ions (except bicarbonate) are in the right range, can i brew belgian-style beers achieving the right mash ph using only lactic acid, or must i diluite my tap water with ro?
i mean, have bicarobanates got flavor impact in the final beer?

Hi Andrea93, I looked at your recent post record and see you may be particularly interested in saisons. I brew a lot of Belgian Pales including saisons, strong goldens, triples, etc. From my experience (not necessarily water calculators), it may take as much as 11-13 ml of lactic acid in a 5 gallon batch to neutralize that much alkalinity and get your mash pH correct. This much lactic acid will have a flavor impact and for my taste it is not pleasant. For me it does not come off as tartness (which would be nice), but sort of a minerally taste. Which may be a combination of the acid and bicarbonate. Other acids may be more forgiving but I have no experience. I think you should find some other way to reduce the alkalinity.
 
That water is well suited to decarbonating via boiling or lime softening. In either case, the calcium content and bicarbonate content would be significantly reduced while the other ion concentrations would generally be unchanged. Consider those treatments if you would prefer not to use RO treatment.

The bicarbonate content is fairly high and trying to neutralize that amount is likely to leave a taste impact if lactic acid is used. Phosphoric acid is a better option if only an acid focused treatment is selected.
 
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