Trudging my way through my first Brewing water chemistry course for an IPA brew day this Friday. Hoping someone who is used the program and knows the chemistry can help me out. Im using 100% distilled water as my base in building from there. The program states that the pH of distilled water is about 6.5. I have gotten my mash pH to 5.35 with mineral additions and my Grainbill which seems right. On the sparge acidification page, my water pH is 6.5 ( distilled ) but the target pH for Sparge is 5.5. Output section and adjustment summary does not say to add any lactic acid to the Sparge. (final water alkalinity says -0.5 ). Is that OK? Do I not need to lower the pH of this sparge?
Sparge pH question, brun Water
- Thread starter trapae
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2008
- Messages
- 64,955
- Reaction score
- 16,524
For your sparge water, alkalinity is the issue, not the actual pH.
With distilled water, your alkalinity is essentially zero, so don't worry about the pH. Your distilled sparge water won't cause your mash pH to creep because it lacks alkalinity.
With distilled water, your alkalinity is essentially zero, so don't worry about the pH. Your distilled sparge water won't cause your mash pH to creep because it lacks alkalinity.
If your mash pH is good, then sparging with untreated distilled or RO water is fine. Distilled and RO have no buffering power, so they cannot raise the pH of the grain bed during sparging.
Brew on
Similar threads
