underdog378
Well-Known Member
Hey all,
Brewing today and having issues with mash pH. Ive been using supporters version of bru'nwater for building up my water from scratch (RO Water) and my pH is consistently off, especially when acid additions are involved. Today I'm brewing a Kolsch. I added all my calcium chloride to the mash, 6.23grams, 6 gallons of strike water. Grain bill is as follows (11 gallon batch):
16.25lbs Weyermann Pils
1lb Vienna Malt
.5lb Wheat Malt
With 6.23grams of Calcium Chloride and 1ml of 88% Lactic Acid my estimated mash pH in bru'nwater is 5.34. Great!
Unfortunately all was not great. About 10 minutes into the mash I took a sample, cooled to room temp and took a mash pH reading (with calibrated ph meter)of.....5.75
I added more lactic acid at this point until the pH was approximately 5.4 at room temp and called it good at this point. Total acid I needed to add was 5.4mL and that is a huge difference from the calculation and with that amount of lactic acid bru'n water says I should be down around 4.97.
Frustrated I input all the same information into brewers friend's mash ph calculator and with 5.4mL of 88% Lactic Acid solution the estimated mash ph is....5.4! Which is exactly what I ended up getting with that amount of lactic acid.
So obviously Bru'n Water is accounting for far more change in pH with the lactic acid addition than Brewers Friend is, and Brewers Friend was spot on for me while Bru'n Water had me frantic. Are these programs calculating acid additions differently? And since I didn't get the mash pH down into the proper range until about 15-20 minutes in do you think I'll have issues with conversion?
Brewing today and having issues with mash pH. Ive been using supporters version of bru'nwater for building up my water from scratch (RO Water) and my pH is consistently off, especially when acid additions are involved. Today I'm brewing a Kolsch. I added all my calcium chloride to the mash, 6.23grams, 6 gallons of strike water. Grain bill is as follows (11 gallon batch):
16.25lbs Weyermann Pils
1lb Vienna Malt
.5lb Wheat Malt
With 6.23grams of Calcium Chloride and 1ml of 88% Lactic Acid my estimated mash pH in bru'nwater is 5.34. Great!
Unfortunately all was not great. About 10 minutes into the mash I took a sample, cooled to room temp and took a mash pH reading (with calibrated ph meter)of.....5.75
I added more lactic acid at this point until the pH was approximately 5.4 at room temp and called it good at this point. Total acid I needed to add was 5.4mL and that is a huge difference from the calculation and with that amount of lactic acid bru'n water says I should be down around 4.97.
Frustrated I input all the same information into brewers friend's mash ph calculator and with 5.4mL of 88% Lactic Acid solution the estimated mash ph is....5.4! Which is exactly what I ended up getting with that amount of lactic acid.
So obviously Bru'n Water is accounting for far more change in pH with the lactic acid addition than Brewers Friend is, and Brewers Friend was spot on for me while Bru'n Water had me frantic. Are these programs calculating acid additions differently? And since I didn't get the mash pH down into the proper range until about 15-20 minutes in do you think I'll have issues with conversion?