NE DIPA water pH help

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by mijclarke, Mar 20, 2022.

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  1. mijclarke

    mijclarke Initiate (0) May 4, 2014 Illinois

    I’m trying to follow Brewers friend NE DIPA Vic Secret Mosaic recipe and was looking for guidance on pH adjustment. I spent quite a lot on upgrading equipment but didn’t buy a ph meter. Anyone have a ballpark amount of lactic acid to add to mash water and sparge water if both are supposed to be 5-5.5 range?

    Using Chicago suburb municipal water (Mount Prospect).
    Grain bill
    8.8lb golden promise
    2.2 lb flaked oats
    2.2 lb white wheat (HBS was out of flaked)
    1.5 lb cane sugar

    Suggested water mod
    2g gypsum
    1g table salt
    8g CaCl

    target:
    Ca: 80
    Mg: 2
    Na: 15
    Cl: 130
    SO4: 40
    HCO3: 40
     
  2. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    It's impossible to say without knowing the profile (Ca, Mg, and Total Alkalinity (as HCO3 or as CaCO3)) of your base water.

    BTW, there's no specific pH range for base water needed for the mash. From a mash pH perspective, what matters with base water is the alkalinity and the Ca/Mg hardness. IOW, if you know your base water has a pH of, say 7.5, that's not useful for computing mash pH, and arbitrarily lowering the pH of that water to 5.5 (or whatever) also isn't helpful, because it's the whole water/grains/additions buffer system that determines the mash pH.
     
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  3. mijclarke

    mijclarke Initiate (0) May 4, 2014 Illinois

    I definitely have to get a water profile. Today’s brew kicked my ass. My robobrew false bottom may have been out of place or I had the pump valve open too much because I got a lot of grain debris in my wort. I was trying to be careful with my water volume and used 6.3 gallons of strike water and 2.6 gallons of sparge but somehow got 7.5 gallons of wort. Maybe the 5 gallon mark of bucket was off? Also forgot to add some lactic acid to sparge water (put 1/2 teaspoon in mash). I ended up doing a very long boil to get close to 5 gallons. My target OG was 1.076 and I got 1.080. Spilled a little of my starter pouring it too aggressively down funnel but i think it will be fine. I used 1 ounce of Vic secret during last 10 min of boil and whirlpool’d 4oz of vic and mosaic. May be dry hopping 5oz of vic and mosaic on day 4 assuming that’s not overkill. Really wish I had the Vermont yeast bc the wort is crazy sweet and hoppy. Hopefully the fruity esters from the omega cosmic punch turn it into a sugar bomb
     
  4. CraigL23

    CraigL23 Initiate (37) Mar 18, 2022

     
  5. CraigL23

    CraigL23 Initiate (37) Mar 18, 2022

    Let us know how it turns out!
     
  6. mijclarke

    mijclarke Initiate (0) May 4, 2014 Illinois

    I meant to say hopefully cosmic punch yeast DOESN’T turn beer into a sugar bomb but i wouldn’t mind it being more sweeter than bitter
     
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