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High water ph

 
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shmootsie




Joined: 01 Sep 2014
Posts: 23



PostLink    Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:04 am    Post subject: High water ph Reply with quote


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Hey all,

I have a question about how to lower the ph of my water the best way without having to use too much lactic acid. The ph of the water where i live is 8ph. I searched the forum and noticed a couple of post where it is said that not to use too much lactic acid. I am lost when it comes to this matter so any help would be appreciated.

Shmootsie
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

See my info here about Lactic Acid:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/parts-list-using?page=4

Kal

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shmootsie




Joined: 01 Sep 2014
Posts: 23



PostLink    Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 3:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you Kal, I hope the 8ml lactic acid won't be overkill I need to get mash ph and sparge water ph down.
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Tungsten




Joined: 06 Dec 2014
Posts: 318
Location: Buffalo, NY


PostLink    Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

shmootsie wrote:
Thank you Kal, I hope the 8ml lactic acid won't be overkill I need to get mash ph and sparge water ph down.


First off, I'm assuming you're talking about acidifying your sparge water with that much acid. That's a lot of lactic acid if you're doing a 5 or 10 gallon batch. Do you have a pH meter? I'd recommend adding far less than 8ml to start, measuring, and then seeing where you're at. You can always add more, but can never take out.
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

shmootsie wrote:
Thank you Kal, I hope the 8ml lactic acid won't be overkill I need to get mash ph and sparge water ph down.

Depends how much water you're adding it to. See the link I posted above for some guidelines on limits.

Kal

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shmootsie




Joined: 01 Sep 2014
Posts: 23



PostLink    Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have the 20gallon kettle setup. On tuesday i will brew and the malt i inserted in ez water it gives me a rough estimate that i need to add to the mash alone already 10ml of lactic acid to get the ph down. I am not using any salts yet but i am leaning towards them looking at the calculations on ez water. How good is the ez water calculator to be trusted?
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kal
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Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 2:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

EZ water is great, I use it for calculating my mash and boil additions but not for lactic additions. Not because it's not any good, but because pH calculations are somewhat impossible to do given that the spreadsheet (or whatever you're using) has to guess at a bunch of things. I use pH meter. Measure your sparge water pH, add mL of 88% lactic, measure again. Keep doing this until your sparge water hits 5.6-5.8 pH. Once you've done this once or twice you'll know exactly how much to add without having to measure.

Same with the mash: Add your salts, stir well, wait a few mins, and measure pH. If higher than 5.2, add 1 mL, stir, and remeasure. Repeat. Grain and darkness of grain and the salts you add will greatly affect pH so you need a meter to do this right. Once you've done a recipe once you can pretty much skip measuring the next time and just do the same (assuming you don't change the water volume, grain amounts or types, or salt additions).

I use this pH meter: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/parts-list-using?page=5
More info about salts: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/parts-list-using?page=4

Kal

_________________
Our new shop with over 150 new products: shop.TheElectricBrewery.com
We ship worldwide and support our products and customers for life.
Purchasing through our affiliate links helps support our site at no extra cost to you. We thank you!
My basement/bar/brewery build 2.0
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shmootsie




Joined: 01 Sep 2014
Posts: 23



PostLink    Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 3:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for the info. I will try to just add the lactic acid on tuesday do some measurements and see what happens. Thanks once again Kal.
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