Question RE: Lactic Acid

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Teufelhunde

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Been brewing extracts for a couple of years, but moving into all grain. First all grain batch likely to happen in a week or two. I have a question about lactic acid. I have a bottle to adjust PH of the mash as needed. Is there a general rule to go by, something like 2ml will move 6 gallons of wort approximately .1 or whatever the numbers might be?

TIA for the input

Lon
 
There really is not a general rule, because different malts have different buffering capacities (which measures how well they resist change to pH). Same thing for different water sources. If you want to predict where your mash pH will land for a given mash and how much acid you need to move it to where you want it, there are several spreadsheets available. Here's an excellent one that's also easy to use, developed by Mark Riffe:

MpH 4.2

If you want a basic primer on water treatment, check out:

Intro to Brewing Water Treatment
 
Yes like vikeman said its grist dependent , for example a all 100% pilsner grist will require more acid then a grist with caramel or roast malts, I recommend brun water and trial and error, another thing i would say starting off is dont worry about exact ph, focus on a range 5.2 to 5.5 and tweak from there on subsequent batches, i will tell you though once you start dialing in water your beer its gonna take off and its really rewarding , take your time keep brewing and you will get it I promise
 
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