Please advice with my PH & Acid additions. Thanks!

[FVillatoro]

First and foremost THANK you for your time.
I have about 14 batches of all grain under me and I am now adjusting water profiles.
I use 88% lactic acid, calcium chloride and Gypsum for now.
For water I use RO water from a vending machine that tastes fine.

Using EZCalculator, my last porter was estimated to be around 5.48 mash PH at room temperature.
For that recipe I used Only 1g of calcium chloride per gallon of water (5.2g in the mash & 4.7g for the sparge):

The porter consisted of:
70% 2 row
18% dark Munich 10L
7% roasted malts
5.5% crystal

Using a calibrated PH meter I hit a mash PH of 5.4 at room temperature after 15 minutes into it.

Now, I am going to build the Cream Ale on here that's:

70% 2 row
30% flaked rice & corn

EZ calculator estimates a mash PH of 5.4 (I expect low 5.3s) if I use 3ml of lactic acid and 2.5g of calcium chloride on 3.7 gallons of mash water.

However, before treating the water I got a PH reading of 6.8. BUT once I added the 3ml of lactic acid and the 2.5g of calcium chloride I got a PH reading of 3.55 ph! That seems extremely low for me and not accurate. The water tastes a little acidic too.

I'm now considering getting new RO water and only adding 1ml of lactic acid.

What do you guys think? I think i'm looking at a potential acid bomb!?

Thank you!

 

[Yooper]

That sure seems like a lot of calcium chloride to me. You wrote: Only 1g of calcium chloride per gallon of water (5.2g in the mash & 4.7g for the sparge) What was the chloride in ppm? 10 grams of cacl2 in a 5 gallon batch is a lot.

Your pH reading is wrong, as with only 3 ml of lactic acid there is no way the pH is that low.

 

[FVillatoro]

That sure seems like a lot of calcium chloride to me. You wrote: Only 1g of calcium chloride per gallon of water (5.2g in the mash & 4.7g for the sparge) What was the chloride in ppm? 10 grams of cacl2 in a 5 gallon batch is a lot.

Your pH reading is wrong, as with only 3 ml of lactic acid there is no way the pH is that low.

Hello Yooper! The profile for this cream ale is the following:
CA: 48, MG: 0, NA: 0, CL: 85, SO: 0,

The 1g of Calcium Chloride per gallon was for the porter that I brewed before.

I ran another calculator and it gave me a mash PH of 3.5 before dough in on the treated water (3ml of lactic acid & 2.5g of Calcium Chloride)... so it appears that I am pretty close.
I'll go for it tomorrow and record everything and post my results.

Thank you for the help!

 

[Merleti]

After adding your additions how long did you wait to test? Also what type of flow or airation did you have.

 

[mabrungard]

I'd guess that that grist combined with RO water would produce a reasonable mashing pH without any acid addition. However, I'm surprised that the pH was that low. That would take some doing. I suggest you review your inputs to the program you are using, or get a better program.

 

[FVillatoro]

Hello fellas. I brewed it today and went ahead and used the low pH adjusted water, and after 15 Mins I took a sample and I got a pH of 5.6 at 68 degrees.
Not the 5.3 that I was aiming for. I'll keep recording my mash PH and if they are not consistent I might have to install my own RO system at home.

I also got a 5% increase in efficiency (71% > 76%) due to the more optimal PH range.
This is about a lightest beer as I will ever brew. A brown ale is next on my list and I am curious to see how that one will turn out.

Thank guys!