Different Mash Approach

[cgg]

Gordon Strong reported on a BeerSmith podcast that he sets his brewing water to a pH of ~5.5 before he starts, eliminating much of the juggling with grains and salts changing the mash pH. He also spoke about holding out the dark grains until vorlauf which also helps keep the pH in an appropriate range.

I would like to try this. Bru'n Water and EZ Water Calculator both come up with an addition of about 3 ml of lactic acid (88%) to take 9 gallons of pH 7.8 water down to ~5.5. That seems like a lot. I don't have a pH meter yet, so should I rely on the spreadsheet results? Consult the Oracle at Delphi?

11# grist - Pale Ale and Munich
5 gal mashIn with 1 tsp CaSO4
4 gal sparge

Opinions?

Regards,

 

[day_trippr]

The math is so dead simple I'd just trust the two calculators and go with their recommendation...

Cheers!

 

[BigEd]

Just because the water starts at pH 5.5 does not mean the mash will be there as well. Also pH alone does not indicate everything is as it should be. A simple acid addition does nothing to insure that specific brewing ions, in particular Calcium Ca+, are at the appropriate levels to provide their assistance to many aspects of the mash.

 

[SpeedYellow]

This is certainly one way to do it, but it will only work for his water and a particular range of recipe formulations. If you have low alkalinity water (like RO/distilled) then this method would fail since the slightest acid addition could get your pH to 5.5 but you mash would come in way high since you added little/no acids These guys who "wrote the books" still struggle in giving useful advice on the mash pH issue. Hopefully he didn't intend to suggest this as a process.

 

[irwilli]

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[irwilli]

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