Kiln Amber Malt, Acidulated Malt

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Pappers_

Moderator Emeritus
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jan 31, 2009
Messages
17,908
Reaction score
4,419
Location
Chicago
So I'm using Kiln Amber Malt and Acidulated Malt for the first time - in a red IPA recipe. Anyone have experience with these or thoughts to share?
 
I’m only guessing by descriptions, but the kiln amber may be similar to aromatic malt. It seems like it will add a toasty or bread crust flavor.

Acidulated malt is processed to add lactic acid to your mash / wort / beer. In small quantities (maybe 0.5 lb), it may not noticeably change the flavor of the beer. At higher quantities, it will lower the pH and add a tartness to the beer. It doesn’t have any other primary purpose than to lower pH and add lactic acid.
 
I used acid malt for years. Always used several ounces to lower mash pH. AFAIK it did its job. I've switched to direct acidification with acid because I think it's easier to control (I was always concerned that the acid malt lost it's pH over time).

Rule of thumb is each ounce of acid malt will drop the mash pH by 0.1. I can only assume that this is with a grist for 5 gallon batch, ~ 1.050 OG.

Does BeerSmith calculate pH for a grain bill? Does it predict pH? I never even looked for that.
 
. . . Does BeerSmith calculate pH for a grain bill? Does it predict pH? I never even looked for that.

It does, and that's what I've been using to calculate the amount of lactic acid to add to the mash water. I include our water profile in Beersmith, and then with the grain bill I'm using and the volume, it predicts the pH. For the Red IPA I brewed yesterday, it calculated that adding just shy of one pound of acid malt would bring the pH down to 5.3
 
. . . . Acidulated malt is processed to add lactic acid to your mash / wort / beer. In small quantities (maybe 0.5 lb), it may not noticeably change the flavor of the beer. At higher quantities, it will lower the pH and add a tartness to the beer. It doesn’t have any other primary purpose than to lower pH and add lactic acid.

Thanks, I should have been more thorough in my post - I usually add lactic acid to adjust the mash pH but thought I would experiment with using acidulated malt instead. I'm not sure what the advantage of one over the other would be.
 
I recently started using acid malt, and I think does a good job. It does not take too much to over do it though. 5% is too much for what I'm making, and water supply here, for instance.
 
I recently started using acid malt, and I think does a good job. It does not take too much to over do it though. 5% is too much for what I'm making, and water supply here, for instance.

Now I'm starting to worry, because when I use Beersmith to calculate the mash pH and the amount of acidualated malt to use, it seems that I'm using more than you are. For the Red IPA, using the Beersmith calculations, it told me to use 12 ounces and for a festbier recipe I'm just working on, its saying 1 lb.

When you say adding too much of it is easy to do, are you picking up tartness in the beer as mentioned above, or do you mean something else?
 
Some tartness, to the point of acidity, also a little stripped of flavor, thin is a descriptive term I've heard for too low pH. 5% is 1# in my standard grain bill. My well water is fairly low pH though too. Mash pH was in 4.9 range. That batch not quite a dumper, but a waste of some higher end floor malted grains, to be sure.

Have to admit though, that was my first attempt at modifying my water, which is pretty good for what I brew anyway. I think 4-6 oz is all I need.
 
Last edited:
Thanks, I use our Chicago water profile in Beersmith, so I hope it would be accurate - Beersmith projected the mash pH to be 5.4 in my red IPA with 1# of acidulated malt. We'll see how it turns out!
 
Back
Top