About Acidulated Malt

[TNP]

Weyermann's rule of thumb says "1% malt reduces 0.1 pH". Their malt is 1%-2% lactic acid, max 10% of the grist.

But Ireks says max 5%: the reason Is that their malt is 4,5% lactic acid.

Then there's Castle Malt: they don't provide lactic acid %, but state that their malt's pH Is 4.5. Since they too recommend a max 5% in the grist, I assume It's 4,5% lactic acid.

Problem Is, in every software I tried all these malts gave the same pH reduction, but this can't be since Ireks (and possibly Castle) contain more than double the acid of Weyermann.

Right now I'm thinking that 1% Ireks could lower pH by 0.3, but please tell me your opinions.

 

[Clarence]

My understanding is that acidulated malt was invented to get round the German beer purity laws, which forbade additives of any kind. I've stopped using it in most recipes and now reduce the carbonate ion equivalent to 40 ppm for most light-coloured beer by using CRS. Much simpler and cheaper than faffing around with acidulated malts I use a Salifert aquarium test kit to measure the alkalinity.

 

[user 47834]

I just use lactic acid. Easy to find, cheap and stores easily. Dose with a small 5ml syringe

 

[The Baron]

I always use Acid Malt also with 80% lactic acid.
This a lift from Tinterweb
Acidulated malt is ~2% lactic acid by weight, and 88% lactic acid has a density of 1.21 g/mL, so for every pound of acid malt you'd be adding 8.5 mL of acid.
Do not know if this factual

 

[user 47834]

I always use Acid Malt also with 80% lactic acid.
This a lift from Tinterweb
Acidulated malt is ~2% lactic acid by weight, and 88% lactic acid has a density of 1.21 g/mL, so for every pound of acid malt you'd be adding 8.5 mL of acid.
Do not know if this factual

I just add the millilitres that brewfather tells me to

 

[TNP]

I always use Acid Malt also with 80% lactic acid.
This a lift from Tinterweb
Acidulated malt is ~2% lactic acid by weight, and 88% lactic acid has a density of 1.21 g/mL, so for every pound of acid malt you'd be adding 8.5 mL of acid.
Do not know if this factual

Yes, but apparently there's a big difference in lactic acid content between the 1-2% of Weyermann and 4,5% of Ireks, so I'd guess a pound of Weyermann and a pound of Ireks aren't the same thing.

I'd write them but Ireks never answers...

 

[The Baron]

I use the Weyermanns so that I get the same result for consistency

 

[TNP]

I wrote to Château, this Is what they told me:

"This Is a question that regularly comes up. We measured pH lowering in function of acid malt addition. The relation Is not linear.
What Weyermann says Is not true in practice"

There was this image. Orange Is what was expected, Blue Is what happened. Water's pH in this test was 6.45.

"The most effective way of reducing water pH Is to use acid, unless subjected to a purity law".

So they basically told me to not buy their acid malt...