The Baron's Brewdays

the baron said:

Yes mixed it well Foxy, I was following advise to use 9g per kilo of grainbill to drop it 0.1 but as you say it does not look to be enough as the Ph has dropped from my last brew from 5.9 to 5.8. Its not drastic but just trying to get back to doing the job slightly better as bad habits do creep in over time. I also have got some lactic acid @ 80% to try on my next brew which could be as soon as tomorrow if things work out

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Have you thought about using phosphoric acid, I use 25% if I come across a grain bill needing more acid will not have any effect on flavour either, also are you not using any gypsum?

Hi Foxy I do not generally do water treatment as I have never had a problem with my brews just trying to get the PH nearer where it should be and then will teach myself water treatment as I have never got that deep into it. It has always been on the back burner for the future but never got around to it. I am going to up the acid malt on my next brew which will be a English bitter/ale and see how that goes . Ps I have got the chemicals to do water treatment but just put them at the back of the cupboard until I can read up and understand it fully. What would Gypsum bring to the party?

Gypsum will lower your pH also, I had a look at your water and it is hard, I am lucky here the water is soft and really not much different to RO water so my additions are low.
If I can find your water source break down I will run a basic recipe through it on Brewers Friend.

Hi Foxy I post my water report from my supplier will dig it out tomorrow, as i said I am starting after many years of brewing to try and understand water treatment a little better I have just tested my alkalinity and will add that to the report
Many Thanks

Hi Foxy my water report below and my alkalinity came out at 7.3 using the test kit if I did it correct
Calcium Total 65.875 mg/l Ca
Chloride Total 28.125 mg/l Cl
Hardness Total 74.8 mg/l Ca
Magnesium Total 5.34
PH 7.28 ph units Hydrogen ion conc
Sodium Total 15.55 mg/l Na
Sulphate 79.975 mg/l So4
these are the average figures as they also give the lowest and highest

Right another brewday and the Saison is kegged and bottled as well. First taste of the Saison and it is similar to a pseudo lager not what I was expecting but it probably did not pick up any funkiness as I found it hard to keep the temp on the high side- definitely need a fermentation chamber to get the benefit of this type of yeast anyway now the brewday
A Juicy IPA called Pelvis Juice
I am doing a Juicy IPA with 1 Ltr of Clementine juice and the rind of a couple of ruby grapefruits and possibly the juice added also. This will be added probably on day 3 just after the fermentation is starting to slow down.
I did add 2.75ml of lactic acid but once again it only dropped the PH down o.1 of a point from the normal 5.9 to 5.8 and I did not want to add too much as I have been told it is detectable at 5 ml or above so maybe lctic acid and acid malt together but will this just cause the same problem and be detectable in the beer as I believe the malt just has lactic acid added to it?
Anyway it was down on Eff slightly at 67% but not worried as it just about hit the figures. I have just added the Wilko Yeast at 24c and it will ferment at @ 18c in the kitchen as the garage is too cold at the mo but ideal in summer. I have a large 100g dry hop in about 5 days so until then its bubbling time

I think I maybe told you this the other day, but I add 5ml lactic acid 80% to my total brewing water volume of 15L (I brew small batches that end up around 10L).

At that concentration the effect of the lactic acid is for all practical purposes negligible.

So for your larger brew volumes I think you could quite comfortably up the amount of lactic acid you're using.

Despite all this, for pale beers my pH still sometimes ends up around 5.8 but I don't worry about it too much, beer will still be made.

For darker beers the dark malts are more acidic so the pH tends to be lower, around 5.3.

the baron said:

Hi Foxy my water report below and my alkalinity came out at 7.3 using the test kit if I did it correct
Calcium Total 65.875 mg/l Ca
Chloride Total 28.125 mg/l Cl
Hardness Total 74.8 mg/l Ca
Magnesium Total 5.34
PH 7.28 ph units Hydrogen ion conc
Sodium Total 15.55 mg/l Na
Sulphate 79.975 mg/l So4
these are the average figures as they also give the lowest and highest

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I will get on to tomorrow.
I had really good brewing water here, I haven't a clue what it is like now they have filled my local reservoir with desalinated water.

matt76 said:

I think I maybe told you this the other day, but I add 5ml lactic acid 80% to my total brewing water volume of 15L (I brew small batches that end up around 10L).

At that concentration the effect of the lactic acid is for all practical purposes negligible.

So for your larger brew volumes I think you could quite comfortably up the amount of lactic acid you're using.

Despite all this, for pale beers my pH still sometimes ends up around 5.8 but I don't worry about it too much, beer will still be made.

For darker beers the dark malts are more acidic so the pH tends to be lower, around 5.3.

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I think you did Matt thats why I was cautious with the first addition and just to see how much it altered the PH. Next time I will try 5ml and see if that drops it by 0.2 to 5.7> I am just wary of adding too much and tasting it in the final product