Lactic acid addition?

[Tunnelvision]

Doing a chainbreaker white ipa in a partial mash adaptation of a full mash. I saw that in the full mash it calls for lactic acid was an addition during the recipe. Not sure what its for. I don't really care but my co-brewer has OCD and wants to be sure we aren't messing it up. Any quick info would be great.


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[Yooper]

Doing a chainbreaker white ipa in a partial mash adaptation of a full mash. I saw that in the full mash it calls for lactic acid was an addition during the recipe. Not sure what its for. I don't really care but my co-brewer has OCD and wants to be sure we aren't messing it up. Any quick info would be great.


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It's probably for pH adjustment for the mash. Most mashes need some acidity (or use RO water). Maybe the person who made the recipe needed it for pH adjustment, but it's also possible that it's used for some "tart" flavor in the beer. Without knowing the recipe and the originator's water profile, it'd have to be a guess but most people wouldn't use lactic acid for flavor for an IPA.

 

[Tunnelvision]

Thanks yopper.


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[andy6026]

This may be too late for your immediate purposes.

For most styles of beer you ideally want a mash pH of around 5.2--5.3. Being too far off on either side can lead to off flavors. Lactic acid is a simple way to treat the water supply to help you get in that range, with one big condition attached to it: You need to know how much to ad given your recipe and water supply in order to hit that target. And it can vary quite significantly.

The best place to start is to perform a brew and take a pH reading of your mash (about 10 minutes into the mash is good, but any time is fine). If the mash is too alkaline (above 5.5), then next time you mash add some Lactic acid to your water supply (both strike and sparge water). How much do you add? Good question. That will entirely depend on the factors above and how far off you were last time.

My own water supply requires that I ad between 1 to 1.5 ml to my entire water supply. 6 months ago I was adding close to 3 mls, but my requirements seem to be creeping down.

I'm by no means an expert on water supply and mash pH so others ought to jump in and confirm or correct what I'm telling you.

edit: One thing I'd add to this post is that for quite some time I struggled trying to make excellent beer. It was usually quite drinkable, but rarely outstanding. So I asked lots of questions and modified my approach as per the suggestions of more experienced brewers. My final product has improved significantly. Since controlling fermentation temps was never a problem for me, I think the two major improvements to my brewing have come from better control of the water supply (including mash pH) and better control of mash temperatures. Ensuring that I get within a suitable range for mash pH, using campden to remove chlorine/chloramines from the water, and buying an accurate thermometer for better control of mash temps seems to have worked wonders for my brewing. If you struggle at times as well then you may want to consider these factors as significant variables that you ought to get under better control.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

This may be too late for your immediate purposes.

For most styles of beer you ideally want a mash pH of around 5.2--5.3. Being too far off on either side can lead to off flavors. Lactic acid is a simple way to treat the water supply to help you get in that range, with one big condition attached to it: You need to know how much to ad given your recipe and water supply in order to hit that target. And it can vary quite significantly.

The best place to start is to perform a brew and take a pH reading of your mash (about 10 minutes into the mash is good, but any time is fine). If the mash is too alkaline (above 5.5), then next time you mash add some Lactic acid to your water supply (both strike and sparge water). How much do you add? Good question. That will entirely depend on the factors above and how far off you were last time.

My own water supply requires that I ad between 1 to 1.5 ml to my entire water supply. 6 months ago I was adding close to 3 mls, but my requirements seem to be creeping down.

I'm by no means an expert on water supply and mash pH so others ought to jump in and confirm or correct what I'm telling you.

edit: One thing I'd add to this post is that for quite some time I struggled trying to make excellent beer. It was usually quite drinkable, but rarely outstanding. So I asked lots of questions and modified my approach as per the suggestions of more experienced brewers. My final product has improved significantly. Since controlling fermentation temps was never a problem for me, I think the two major improvements to my brewing have come from better control of the water supply (including mash pH) and better control of mash temperatures. Ensuring that I get within a suitable range for mash pH, using campden to remove chlorine/chloramines from the water, and buying an accurate thermometer for better control of mash temps seems to have worked wonders for my brewing. If you struggle at times as well then you may want to consider these factors as significant variables that you ought to get under better control.

Awesome post. +1

 

[Tunnelvision]

Thanks for the info. Glad the post helped someone.


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