Sourness testing

[jezbrews]

Whilst I'm not a "sour boy", I do like a little sourness in some styles it can actually make a beer more mouth watering, a bit like how a touch of salt amplifies food. However, I don't want to go straight into souring yet, I want to determine what level of sour, and lactic souring seems the best choice. As such I got some lactic acid 80% solution and my intention was to drop a bit into a glass of regular IPA and see what level I liked and then test the pH to find out when to stop a kettle sour. Problem is the product I just bought says for external use only, but I presume they don't realise this might be used for my purpose as looking at specifically food grade lactic acid, it seems exactly the same product. Am I missing something? There's no mention of perfuming going into it or anything, it just says

"Lactic Acid
80% Standard
Alpha-hydroxy Acid" on the front.

Does this actually differ from food grade lactic acid? I obviously don't want to use this to test my acid preference and then poison myself but there may not be anything wrong with it.

 

[YeastFace]

Do you have a photo of the container? Is the liquid colourless?

 

[jezbrews]

Do you have a photo of the container? Is the liquid colourless?

Yes the liquid is colourless, however I just unscrewed the lid and there is no foil seal on it, so I'll be returning it! Either it has been removed, which is suspicious, or it never had one, which is negligent. I will be looking for specifically food grade now...

 

[Sadfield]

There's no harm in trying the above with food grade lactic. However, IMHO there's more to sourness than pH level, with flavour compounds changing perception. For example Lactic, Citric, Acetic acids will all taste different at the same pH. Likewise saccharomyces, lactobacillus and Pediococcus all produce lactic acid with differing affect on sourness.