Sparge Acid Addition Mistake

(88%) Lactic Acid is a lot more potent than (10%) Phosphoric, so your wort pH is going to be lower. How much lower depends on what else is in your wort. Have you tasted it and/or measured the pH?

 

I'd say if it tastes good, don't sweat it.

 

The Mesopotamians made beer from left over cereal gruel, stagnant water, and whatever microbe happened to drift by . . . must have turned out okay because they kept at it. I say don't sweat a few pH points . . . let'er ride.

 

How do you know mash pH was 5.3?

 

Finally, someone who's measuring their pH. Most professional breweries don't and it's incredibly important!!!

 

You should thank utahbeerdude instead. The water chem models in BrewCipher are his. I was fortunate that he was willing to build and share them.

 

Never used this calculator before and can't attest to its accuracy, but it looks robust and might help you to predict the pH of your acidified sparge water and possibly the effect it will have on your overall wort, depending on what you know about the base water....

http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/

 

Also, if his recipe is already in BrewCipher (I think it is), he could just adjust the desired sparge water pH input until it calls for 12 ml of lactic acid.

 

I really have to ween myself off of beersmith 2 and start fully exploring BrewCipher.

 

Your starting pH doesn't really have anything to do with your final pH and acid additions, its carbonates that matter.

 

I am going to go out on a limb and say that the beer will have a much lower final pH and you will taste it in the final product. Pre fermentation it will be hard to judge against all that sugar. Post is another story. I accidentally added 9ml (instead of 0.9) of Lactic Acid to my sparge on a 15 gallon batch and my Imperial Red IPA was tart when cold. As it warmed up the tartness faded quite a bit, but when cold you could tell.

 

A quick thought...if it turns out tart post-fermentation, maybe secondary on cherries or raspberries and make a pseudo-sour fruit beer out of it. I think that might work well with a tart-ish Helles Bock base.

 

It all depends on his water profile though. I routinely add about 6-7ml of lactic acid to my sparge water for a 5 gallon batch because my water is high in carbonates. I need the acidity just to get though the buffering in my water.

 

Very true. Didn't consider that aspect of it. The water here is super close to RO to begin with, so there is nothing in the water here to buffer the acid addition I added.