pittsy
Landlord.
I have been getting into water chemistry and while i can get my levels around about right with the help of Crs and diluting with distilled water my ratio of chloride to sulphate was still out as in too bitter where i want it more malty , i have reduced the amount of crs so my sulphate isn't as high and also less dilution so my chloride is higher .
I have tap water of 7.4ph and my brew is amber (hefe with decoction) and with no treatment i was getting a mash ph of 6 which is too high ( ideal around 5.4ph) , and with water treatment it lowered to 5.8ph which is still a little high and adding more crs to lower it will increase my sulphate too high and diluting more will reduce my chloride too low in ratio to sulphate . So my solution is acid malt , i will continue to treat my water with my ratio for a balanced beer and my calcium etc etc in the right area while also using acid malt at 4% which will be 200g of my 5kg grain bill (approx) and doing this my ph should lower around 0.4 points making it approx mash ph of 5.4/5.5 ph . Weyermann who make acidulated malt say for every 1% used with drop ph by 0.1 . Research tells me around 3% acid malt is often used in hefeweizens and as i want to drop mine i've opted for 4% , while over 5% i've read you will start to notice a flavour change (sour ) which i don't want . Also i've read different versions of when to add acid malt to the mash , 1 says at start another says at last 20 mins of mash and to make things worse i do step temp mashes (with decoction) .
So anyone got any experience with acid malt , any information and input welcome
I have tap water of 7.4ph and my brew is amber (hefe with decoction) and with no treatment i was getting a mash ph of 6 which is too high ( ideal around 5.4ph) , and with water treatment it lowered to 5.8ph which is still a little high and adding more crs to lower it will increase my sulphate too high and diluting more will reduce my chloride too low in ratio to sulphate . So my solution is acid malt , i will continue to treat my water with my ratio for a balanced beer and my calcium etc etc in the right area while also using acid malt at 4% which will be 200g of my 5kg grain bill (approx) and doing this my ph should lower around 0.4 points making it approx mash ph of 5.4/5.5 ph . Weyermann who make acidulated malt say for every 1% used with drop ph by 0.1 . Research tells me around 3% acid malt is often used in hefeweizens and as i want to drop mine i've opted for 4% , while over 5% i've read you will start to notice a flavour change (sour ) which i don't want . Also i've read different versions of when to add acid malt to the mash , 1 says at start another says at last 20 mins of mash and to make things worse i do step temp mashes (with decoction) .
So anyone got any experience with acid malt , any information and input welcome
