Silver_Is_Money
Larry Sayre, Developer of 'Mash Made Easy'
... whereby malts/grains with zero diastatic power can not be stand alone mashed so as to reliably assess either their pHDI or their BC.
Let's begin: (bear with me, as this is a long one)
1st: Establish the BC for a 'Standard Candle' base malt:
Let's use the example of a Pale Malt as our 'Standard Candle':
1) Grind ~60 grams of our Pale Malt in a well cleaned and well dried and well emptied Coffee Grinder.
2) Add 50 grams of this pulverized malt to 200 mL of distilled or DI water.
3) Mash at ~67 degrees C. for 1 hour
4) Cool to 20 degrees C. Do not decant, but rather leave the grist in with the Wort.
5) Measure the pH at 20 degrees C. with no stirring. Wait 30 seconds for full probe stabilization.
6) Record the pH as the 'Standard Candle pHDI'
7) Titrate the sample (grist plus Wort) to pH 5.40 with 0.1N HCl or 0.1N H2SO4 or 0.1N HNO3, with stirring after each small acid addition, but allowing the pH probe to sit undisturbed in the wort/grist for 30 seconds to stabilize for each reading. Stop titrating at pH 5.40.
8) Multiply the mL's of titrant required by 0.1 to compute the mEq's of acid titrant required.
Hypothetical Example:
pHDI = 5.73
Titrant required to hit pH 5.40 = 6.7 mL
mEq's of acid titrant = 0.1 x 6.7 = 0.67 mEq's
9) Delta-pH = mEq's/(BC x Kg.) [where 50 grams of grist mashed = 0.050 Kg.)
10) 5.73 - 5.40 = 0.33 = Delta-pH
11) 0.33 = 0.67/(BC x 0.050)
12 Solve for BC: And poof, BC = 40.6
The BC (Buffering Coefficient) of our 'Standard Candle' base malt is calculated to be 40.6 mEq/Kg_pH. This means that it takes a calculated 40.6 mEq's of acid to move 1 Kg. of our 'Standard Candle' base malt downward by 1.00 pH points within a DI water mash. Or 13.398 mEq's to move 1 Kg. downward by 0.33 pH points. (whereby 0.33 x 40.6 = 13.398)
So now we have established that our 'Standard Candle' base malt has a pHDI of 5.73 and a BC of 40.6
Lets consider Black Patent malt next.
Black Patent malt has no diastatic power, so we can't (reliably, at least) test mash it alone. We will therefore need to mash it along with our 'Standard Candle' base malt, and then extract Black Patent's pHDI and BC from within that groundwork.
Lets begin:
1) Grind 30 grams of the Black Patent plus 30 grams of the 'Standard Candle' base malt 'together' in a well cleaned and well dried and well emptied coffee grinder.
2) Add 50 grams of this pulverized malt blend to 200 mL of distilled or DI water.
3) Mash at ~67 degrees C. for 1 hour
4) Cool to 20 degrees C. Do not decant, but rather leave the grist in with the Wort.
5) Measure the pH at 20 degrees C. with no stirring. Wait 30 seconds for full probe stabilization.
6) Record the pH as the 'Blended Malts pHDI'. I'll presume here the pHDI will be below 5.40 pH.
7) Titrate the blended malts (grist plus Wort) to pH 5.40 with 0.1N NaOH, with stirring after each small NaOH adition, but allowing the pH probe to sit undisturbed in the wort/grist for 30 seconds to stabilize for each reading. Stop titrating at pH 5.40.
8) Multiply the mL's of titrant required by 0.1 to compute the mEq's of basic titrant required.
Hypothetical Example:
pHDI = 5.01 for the blended malts
NaOH titrant required to hit pH 5.40 = 10.9 mL
mEq's of basic titrant = 10.9 x -0.1 = -1.09 mEq's (minus because the titrant is basic)
9) We know from the above example for our 'Standard Candle' that 50 grams (0.050 Kg.) of this base malt required 0.67 mEq's of acid titrant whereby to hit pH 5.4.
Therefore: 25 grams of the 'Standard Candle' are the basic equivalent of -0.67/2 = -0.335 mEq's of basic titrant.
10) -1.09 mEq's of NaOH + -0.335 mEq's of 'basic equivalent' = -1.425 mEq's required to move 25 grams of Black Patent Malt alone to pH 5.40 [but I'm jumping ahead a bit here so:]
11) (5.40 - 5.01) = -1.09/(BC x 0.050)
12) BC_Blend = -55.9
13) -55.9 + 40.6 = -15.3
14) Our estimated BC for our Black Patent malt = -55.9 + -15.3 = -71.2
15) And we know from step #10 above that -1.425 mEq's are required whereby to move 25 grams of Black Patent Malt alone to pH 5.40
16) Therefore:
Delta pH = -1.425/(-71.2 x 0.025)
Delta-pH = 0.80
5.40 pH - 0.80 = 4.60 pHDI for our Black Patent malt
Double Checking on the BC:
Delta-pH = mEq's/(BC x Kg.)
(4.60-5.40) = 1.425/(BC x 0.025 Kg.)
-0.80 = -1.425/(BC x 0.025)
-0.80(0.025*BC)=-1.425
-0.02*BC = -1.425
BC = -71.25 mEq/Kg_pH
Allowing for rounding error throughout everything above, -71.2 ~= -71.25 ~= TRUE (or rather, a close check with an average BC of 71.225 allowing for all roundings and hypothetical presumptions)
So therefore we can now conclude that our lot of Black Patent malt when standing all alone has a pHDI of ~4.60 and a BC of ~71.225
NOTE: I cobbled this together rather quickly. So as I always say (while plagiarizing Ronald Reagan), "trust but verify". I would thereby well appreciate if someone checked my work.
Let's begin: (bear with me, as this is a long one)
1st: Establish the BC for a 'Standard Candle' base malt:
Let's use the example of a Pale Malt as our 'Standard Candle':
1) Grind ~60 grams of our Pale Malt in a well cleaned and well dried and well emptied Coffee Grinder.
2) Add 50 grams of this pulverized malt to 200 mL of distilled or DI water.
3) Mash at ~67 degrees C. for 1 hour
4) Cool to 20 degrees C. Do not decant, but rather leave the grist in with the Wort.
5) Measure the pH at 20 degrees C. with no stirring. Wait 30 seconds for full probe stabilization.
6) Record the pH as the 'Standard Candle pHDI'
7) Titrate the sample (grist plus Wort) to pH 5.40 with 0.1N HCl or 0.1N H2SO4 or 0.1N HNO3, with stirring after each small acid addition, but allowing the pH probe to sit undisturbed in the wort/grist for 30 seconds to stabilize for each reading. Stop titrating at pH 5.40.
8) Multiply the mL's of titrant required by 0.1 to compute the mEq's of acid titrant required.
Hypothetical Example:
pHDI = 5.73
Titrant required to hit pH 5.40 = 6.7 mL
mEq's of acid titrant = 0.1 x 6.7 = 0.67 mEq's
9) Delta-pH = mEq's/(BC x Kg.) [where 50 grams of grist mashed = 0.050 Kg.)
10) 5.73 - 5.40 = 0.33 = Delta-pH
11) 0.33 = 0.67/(BC x 0.050)
12 Solve for BC: And poof, BC = 40.6
The BC (Buffering Coefficient) of our 'Standard Candle' base malt is calculated to be 40.6 mEq/Kg_pH. This means that it takes a calculated 40.6 mEq's of acid to move 1 Kg. of our 'Standard Candle' base malt downward by 1.00 pH points within a DI water mash. Or 13.398 mEq's to move 1 Kg. downward by 0.33 pH points. (whereby 0.33 x 40.6 = 13.398)
So now we have established that our 'Standard Candle' base malt has a pHDI of 5.73 and a BC of 40.6
Lets consider Black Patent malt next.
Black Patent malt has no diastatic power, so we can't (reliably, at least) test mash it alone. We will therefore need to mash it along with our 'Standard Candle' base malt, and then extract Black Patent's pHDI and BC from within that groundwork.
Lets begin:
1) Grind 30 grams of the Black Patent plus 30 grams of the 'Standard Candle' base malt 'together' in a well cleaned and well dried and well emptied coffee grinder.
2) Add 50 grams of this pulverized malt blend to 200 mL of distilled or DI water.
3) Mash at ~67 degrees C. for 1 hour
4) Cool to 20 degrees C. Do not decant, but rather leave the grist in with the Wort.
5) Measure the pH at 20 degrees C. with no stirring. Wait 30 seconds for full probe stabilization.
6) Record the pH as the 'Blended Malts pHDI'. I'll presume here the pHDI will be below 5.40 pH.
7) Titrate the blended malts (grist plus Wort) to pH 5.40 with 0.1N NaOH, with stirring after each small NaOH adition, but allowing the pH probe to sit undisturbed in the wort/grist for 30 seconds to stabilize for each reading. Stop titrating at pH 5.40.
8) Multiply the mL's of titrant required by 0.1 to compute the mEq's of basic titrant required.
Hypothetical Example:
pHDI = 5.01 for the blended malts
NaOH titrant required to hit pH 5.40 = 10.9 mL
mEq's of basic titrant = 10.9 x -0.1 = -1.09 mEq's (minus because the titrant is basic)
9) We know from the above example for our 'Standard Candle' that 50 grams (0.050 Kg.) of this base malt required 0.67 mEq's of acid titrant whereby to hit pH 5.4.
Therefore: 25 grams of the 'Standard Candle' are the basic equivalent of -0.67/2 = -0.335 mEq's of basic titrant.
10) -1.09 mEq's of NaOH + -0.335 mEq's of 'basic equivalent' = -1.425 mEq's required to move 25 grams of Black Patent Malt alone to pH 5.40 [but I'm jumping ahead a bit here so:]
11) (5.40 - 5.01) = -1.09/(BC x 0.050)
12) BC_Blend = -55.9
13) -55.9 + 40.6 = -15.3
14) Our estimated BC for our Black Patent malt = -55.9 + -15.3 = -71.2
15) And we know from step #10 above that -1.425 mEq's are required whereby to move 25 grams of Black Patent Malt alone to pH 5.40
16) Therefore:
Delta pH = -1.425/(-71.2 x 0.025)
Delta-pH = 0.80
5.40 pH - 0.80 = 4.60 pHDI for our Black Patent malt
Double Checking on the BC:
Delta-pH = mEq's/(BC x Kg.)
(4.60-5.40) = 1.425/(BC x 0.025 Kg.)
-0.80 = -1.425/(BC x 0.025)
-0.80(0.025*BC)=-1.425
-0.02*BC = -1.425
BC = -71.25 mEq/Kg_pH
Allowing for rounding error throughout everything above, -71.2 ~= -71.25 ~= TRUE (or rather, a close check with an average BC of 71.225 allowing for all roundings and hypothetical presumptions)
So therefore we can now conclude that our lot of Black Patent malt when standing all alone has a pHDI of ~4.60 and a BC of ~71.225
NOTE: I cobbled this together rather quickly. So as I always say (while plagiarizing Ronald Reagan), "trust but verify". I would thereby well appreciate if someone checked my work.
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