Negative Bicarbonate / Alkalinity

[Denis2121]

HI Guys,

Just designing water profile for Irish Red Ale I'm about to brew.

Never looked closely into Alkalinity but just noticed that my Residual Alkalinity will be -205 after adding 2.5 ml lactic acid 80% to bring the mash PH down to 5.4. What effect if any will this have on my beer ?

Screenshots attached.

 

[day_trippr]

Room temp mash pH of 5.4 is smack in the middle of the ideal range.
Residual Alkalinity is important for dialing in mash pH, nothing more afaik.
Unless I'm missing something here, you're good to go.

Cheers!

 

[Denis2121]

Room temp mash pH of 5.4 is smack in the middle of the ideal range.
Residual Alkalinity is important for dialing in mash pH, nothing more afaik.
Unless I'm missing something here, you're good to go.

Cheers!

Thanks ! Just what i was hoping to hear as any changes I make whether its different water profile etc. Once i add in acid to lower mash ph from 5.6 i end up in a negative.

 

[mabrungard]

Negative RA or negative bicarbonate amounts are essentially meaningless with respect to brewing water and wort chemistry. But they do provide an accounting of the calculations employed to estimate mashing pH. You can ignore them in practice, but do strive to put your mash into a good pH.