I've done some searching and I can quite find the answer I'm looking for. My question is in regards to a lactic acid addition. I've read that the recommendation is not to exceed 2ml....however, what I can't find is this based on mash and sparge volume or batch size. I'm going to make a brew that will require 17 gal of water on a 11.25 gal batch. I will need 24ml of lactic b/t mash and sparge to get my pH where I need it. If it's calculated on total water volume, I'm ok...if not...I need to figure something else out. I'm thinking it's calculated on total water volume, but just want to make sure before I dump it in.
Mash pH and Lactic
- Thread starter jstofer
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If that is 2 ml/gal of 88% lactic, that is a lot of acid!. I estimate that the water would have nearly 400 ppm lactate ion and almost anyone would be able to taste it. I wouldn't go over 1.5 ml/gal in order the keep the lactate content under 300 ppm, which is the typical taste threshold.
If you really need to add that much acid to the brewing water, you should consider moving to phosphoric acid since it has less taste impact.
If you really need to add that much acid to the brewing water, you should consider moving to phosphoric acid since it has less taste impact.
Martin,
That's the basis of my question. I'm got roughly 6.5 gallons of mash water to add and from what I've adjusted in your spreadsheet to get me to a 5.5 pH, I need about 10ml of lactic. If I treat the sparge water to 6.0, this requires the remaining lactic. There is about 11 gallons of sparge water to treat. But, if I'm understanding you correctly, I shouldn't be adding more than 1.5ml based on 11.25 gal, which would make my max additions a little over 16 ml.
Lately, I had been using distilled/ro water and building from there b/c my water is about 342 in total alkalinity and about 416 ppm bicarb. All of the other minerals are spot on, but the water is definitely hard! Maybe I'll just cut my water to help reduce the lactic additions.
Yes, with that alkalinity content, the degree of acidification is excessive. Diluting the tap water or preboiling it will reduce the amount of acidification needed.
