manoaction
Well-Known Member
I dont use starters as much as I should, and Id like to drop that bad habit. To make it easier, Id like to start canning wort, but I dont have a pressure cooker.
I was curious if people had ever added citric acid to their wort to pull it down below ph4.6, then diluted it with water to bring it back up to ph5.5 when they were ready to make their starter.
My math works thusly
A properly tuned mash should exit the tun around ph 5.5. My water has an alkalinity of 36 ppm CaCO3. If I add 1.16 grams of Citric Acid to 3 gallons, that will knock it down to 4.5. I then water bath can.
Later when it is time to begin my starter I mix equal parts of wort and some fresh water with baking soda to bring it back up to 5.5 and then pitch.
The downside of this being that buffer calculation would be pretty tricky seeing that Im not a chemist. Trial, error, and ph strips should be able to help you perfect the ratio based on your tap waters ph and alkalinity.
I suppose it might also be pain to mash high gravity wort just for starters, but you could make a session out of the second runnings or boil the crap out of it.
What are your thoughts?
I was curious if people had ever added citric acid to their wort to pull it down below ph4.6, then diluted it with water to bring it back up to ph5.5 when they were ready to make their starter.
My math works thusly
A properly tuned mash should exit the tun around ph 5.5. My water has an alkalinity of 36 ppm CaCO3. If I add 1.16 grams of Citric Acid to 3 gallons, that will knock it down to 4.5. I then water bath can.
Later when it is time to begin my starter I mix equal parts of wort and some fresh water with baking soda to bring it back up to 5.5 and then pitch.
The downside of this being that buffer calculation would be pretty tricky seeing that Im not a chemist. Trial, error, and ph strips should be able to help you perfect the ratio based on your tap waters ph and alkalinity.
I suppose it might also be pain to mash high gravity wort just for starters, but you could make a session out of the second runnings or boil the crap out of it.
What are your thoughts?