Hi every one, So I’ve input my recipe in to Brun’water and its telling me that m mash ph is too low and to add alkalinity, is it really as simple as just adding some baking soda? im about to leave to go to my LHBS and get some salts and stuff, and want to make sure i get what i need.
12-C Barleywine & Imperial Stout, Russian Imperial Stout
Min OG: 1.075 Max OG: 1.095
Min IBU: 50 Max IBU: 90
Min Clr: 20 Max Clr: 40 Color in SRM, Lovibond
Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Tinseth
Tinseth Concentration Factor: 1.19
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 5
Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Gravity SRM
74.8 13.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
8.6 1.50 lbs. Brown Malt Great Britain 1.032 70
4.3 0.75 lbs. Crystal 120L America 1.032 120
3.6 0.63 lbs. Chocolate Malt America 1.029 350
3.6 0.63 lbs. Roasted Barley America 1.028 450
2.9 0.50 lbs. Victory Malt America 1.034 25
2.2 0.38 lbs. Black Patent Malt America 1.028 525
Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
1.38 oz. Cluster Pellet 7.00 28.7 105 min.
0.75 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 23.5 105 min.
1.50 oz. Liberty Pellet 4.00 12.7 30 min.
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer Pellet 8.00 16.9 30 min.
1.00 oz. Liberty Pellet 4.00 0.0 Dry Hop
Extras
Amount Name Type Time
1.00 Tsp Irish Moss Fining 15 Min.(boil)
Yeast
WYeast 1272 American Ale II (primary yeast cake from previous batch)
Red Star Dry Champagne Yeast (bottling)
Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Single Step
Qts Water Per LBS Grain: 1.25 Total Qts: 21.73
Saccharification Rest Temp : 152 Time: 90
Mash-out Rest Temp : 168 Time: 10
Sparge Temp : 170 Time: 45
Try removing the roasted malts from the spreadsheet (zero them out) one-by-one and watch the pH rise. Once you figure out how much you need to eliminate, keep those grains separate and mash the rest, adding the reserved roasted grains after 30-45 minutes.
Good advice. Also, do not use baking soda! The sodium from it can give your beer a really weird flavor. Chalk is sometimes used to raise pH, but it generally ineffective. Pickling lime is the best mineral to use to raise pH.
So, no baking soda, but I’ll use calcium carbonate to help raise my ph, the LHBS didn’t have pickling lime.
as far as the grains go, I reduced the amount by exactly half in the spreadsheet, and it worked just fine, so I’ll just add those to the mash late? after 30 mins? 45 mins? and should I add enough strike water to account for the extra 3 lbs that will be going in late? Strike water is heating up as i type.
[quote=“HellBound”]So, no baking soda, but I’ll use calcium carbonate to help raise my ph, the LHBS didn’t have pickling lime.
as far as the grains go, I reduced the amount by exactly half in the spreadsheet, and it worked just fine, so I’ll just add those to the mash late? after 30 mins? 45 mins? and should I add enough strike water to account for the extra 3 lbs that will be going in late? Strike water is heating up as i type.
thanks :cheers: [/quote]
Check your grocery store for pickling lime. If you stick with the CaCO3, do some research into it’s effectiveness. Most of what you put in doesn’t go into solution.
Sorry for the late posting and no help on the mash, but I mash with all water as if all the grain is in the tun, then add the dark grains with about 20 minutes left in the mash if I want them for flavor or if they’re only for color I run them through a spice mill to powder and add right at the end of the mash or with the sparge instead.
Hope your mash worked out and you didn’t have to add any calcium carbonate. As Denny said, CaCO3 is pretty useless for adjusting pH - locate some pickling lime and keep it handy (it doesn’t take much of it to raise the pH), but I’ve had great success using the grain bill to adjust the mash and have only had to add lime once or twice.
I used calcium carbonate. And although I didn’t check my mash ph, I hit all my expected gravities RIGHT ON THE MONEY. And I can only assume if my ph was still 4.9 instead of 5.3 I wouldn’t have, at least that’s my understanding.
Thanks for all the help. You and Denny have tought me a lot along the way.
If you do get pickling lime for future brews, be aware that you have to weigh it very carefully so as to get the exact amount needed but no more than that.
[quote=“HellBound”]So, no baking soda, but I’ll use calcium carbonate to help raise my ph, the LHBS didn’t have pickling lime.
[/quote]
For future reference, try the canning section at Walmart. They should have it for just a few dollars. They may or may not have it right now, as it may be considered a seasonal item. I found it out of season.
[quote=“kcbeersnob”][quote=“HellBound”]So, no baking soda, but I’ll use calcium carbonate to help raise my ph, the LHBS didn’t have pickling lime.
[/quote]
For future reference, try the canning section at Walmart. They should have it for just a few dollars. They may or may not have it right now, as it may be considered a seasonal item. I found it out of season.
[quote=“HellBound”]
Alas, I live in the greater Los Angeles region, and there is no canning section in our walmarts. but I’m sure I can find it online.[/quote]
For most stores (including Walmart) a canning section would be seasonal, so they would only carry pickling lime as long as their inventory holds after the summer canning season has ended. I was shocked to find a couple bags in one KC walmart in last October.
Good advice. Also, do not use baking soda! The sodium from it can give your beer a really weird flavor. Chalk is sometimes used to raise pH, but it generally ineffective. Pickling lime is the best mineral to use to raise pH.[/quote]
I’ve been using baking soda to raise ph. I havent drank any of the beers I’ve made since doing water additions, hoping they turn out now. Would sodium have to be pretty high for it to become a problem?
Good advice. Also, do not use baking soda! The sodium from it can give your beer a really weird flavor. Chalk is sometimes used to raise pH, but it generally ineffective. Pickling lime is the best mineral to use to raise pH.[/quote]
I’ve been using baking soda to raise ph. I havent drank any of the beers I’ve made since doing water additions, hoping they turn out now. Would sodium have to be pretty high for it to become a problem?[/quote]
Yea, that is pretty bad news for me. I just started using Bru’nWater and baking soda had the right combo of minerals to get my RO water to style.
Denny, how much does it take to throw off weird flavors?
We were just talking about this on the AHA forum. Going from memory, I think Martin and Kai agreed that baking soda was OK if you had little to no sodium already. According to Martin, you want to keep overall sodium below 50 ppm.
Lets see, I am starting with RO which is 4 ppm sodium per Ward Labs.
For a Chocolate stout, I added only 1 gram of baking soda to the Mash water. Ended up with 18 ppm sodium total
For a Dunkel lager I added 1.5 grams of baking soda to get to 26 ppm.
Did I also read where people said to stay away from Epsom Salt as well? Been using a bit of that as well. 2.4 grams total in the Stout and 4.8 grams in the dunkel.
Just kind of been following Bru’nWater to get to the recommended levels per style.
Good advice. Also, do not use baking soda! The sodium from it can give your beer a really weird flavor. Chalk is sometimes used to raise pH, but it generally ineffective. Pickling lime is the best mineral to use to raise pH.[/quote]
Baking soda has worked fine for me in small amounts. But I’d go with what Shadetree is advising.
