Sodium Lactate

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bitteritdown

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In the Brulosophy test on Sodium levels in beer, it was suggested in the comments that sodium lactate or sodium phosphate could be used to add sodium ions.

Not being familiar with these chemicals, would they be viable additions and how does one perform calculations for them? For example, would sodium lactate neutralize alkalinity and add sodium ions and what is the calculation for such an endeavor? Sodium phosphate could be dangerous in certain forms, not sure if you'd want to use it, perhaps the monobasic sodium phosphate would be ok?
 
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Sodium Lactate is the sodium salt of a weak acid, so if anything it should behave as a very weak base.
 
Lactic acid is, actually, pretty strong (pKa = 3.86) to the point that most spreadsheets consider it fully dissociated at mash pH. But it's not as strong an acid as NaOH is a base (-0.86) so, with respect to mash pH, it is slightly basic. At a concentration of 1 mmol/L (112 mg/L) it contributes alkalinity of 0.0276 mEq/L (0.18 ppm as CaCO3). Thus it is, essentially, a neutral salt. The pH of the 0.001 M solution would be about 7.5
 
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