Lactic acid for water treatment

[MattGuk]

I should probably also point out that I am going to no sparge route for this brew.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Thanks Hazelwood.
Strange thing is, and maybe this is normal, but once I have put my acid additions in BF it doesn't change my alkalinity or Bicarb as it is listed on there

Sorry bud, I can’t advise on BF because I’ve never used it.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I should probably also point out that I am going to no sparge route for this brew.

No sparge is fine, you’ll just lose efficiency so will have to add a bit extra grain when following a recipe.

 

[Stan's Brew]

I build RO water and use lactic following dosing with salts for the profile, I treat the whole water and then pump off to the HLT for sparge requirement. I use BF to guide me, but initially I used a method that one of the US craft breweries (can't remember which brewery) use to get the water down to 5.5 pH using salts & lactic. If I dosed the water using the brewery method the night before brew day, the pH would rise to 6.0 for the following morning. I need to do some more testing but the brewery method got me in the range and I have tweaked using BF ever since.

I've not checked my numbers for a few months now as my pH meter went on the blink and I've got one on back order, once you have it dialled in for a profile using RO water then its pretty much set and forget and the pH meter is only needed as a check every now and again.

 

[MattGuk]

No sparge is fine, you’ll just lose efficiency so will have to add a bit extra grain when following a recipe.

Thanks mate, I usually get around 68-70%with no sparge, normally carry out a sparge and get some extra but I also appreciate the odd lazy brew day.
What brewing software do you use if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Thanks mate, I usually get around 68-70%with no sparge, normally carry out a sparge and get some extra but I also appreciate the odd lazy brew day.
What brewing software do you use if you don't mind me asking?

I don’t really use any but on the odd occasion I do I use Beersmith.

 

[Twogunrocky]

Not sure if you've done this or not Matt but you need to enable the water agents through the settings in 'Water' first

Then you'll see the adjustments to the water profile in real time as you adjust the specific salt/acid.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Hi
I tracked down CRS/AMS in the settings for water in brewfather.
Also found DWB mixture.
What are these things please?

Currently I just add salts and acid as the recipe needs based on the BF water calc.

 

[Twogunrocky]

Also found DWB mixture.
What are these things please?

From the CML website

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Thanks @Twogunrocky
Not something I need to worry about, I'll keep using the individual salts approach.

 

[Twogunrocky]

Yeah I keep my additions as simple as possible too... just refer to strange steve's basic water treatment guide which is simplicity itself.

 

[MattGuk]

I have enabled that in setting, but, and this maybe something I'm missing, when I set the additions to 0 then hit auto, nothing happens, even though the water isn't near the required parameters

 

[MattGuk]

What I should say is, my Alkalinity ( shown as HC03 ) is way off with no salts or acids added, if I hit the auto button, it adds nothing in the form of salts or acid, something that it used to do

 

[YeastFace]

Edit - I should learn how to read. Thought you wrote Beersmith, not Brewfather. Will leave response below as may help someone else.


Beersmith uses their own formula model in the recipe section, but they have a separate Mash PH tool where you can select Bru'n Water's formula.

Bru'n Water's model seems to be more on the money for me and (without checking) is usually around 40-60% of the volume of lactic acid thab Beersmith's own formula recommends.

Hopefully these screenshots works as an example (for full volume mashing):

Beersmith/MPH model - 10.6ml

Bru'n Water model - 4ml

 

[Old Fart At Play]

Not sure if you've done this or not Matt but you need to enable the water agents through the settings in 'Water' first
View attachment 77212
View attachment 77213
View attachment 77214
Then you'll see the adjustments to the water profile in real time as you adjust the specific salt/acid.

Old thread I know, but I've been looking at Brewfather largely because so many people seem to rate it. But - I have enabled agents as shown on these screens, but when I go to the drop own to specify acid I still only get a choice of lactic or phosphoric - no CMS:

It is the free version I am using.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Try in a recipe.
Select water, just to the right of the mash pH a little cog wheel.
Select that and scroll down the list of salts options.
The CMS and DWB are options below sodium metabisulphate.

 

[Old Fart At Play]

Try in a recipe.
Select water, just to the right of the mash pH a little cog wheel.
Select that and scroll down the list of salts options.
The CMS and DWB are options below sodium metabisulphate.

Thanks.

yes I had done that, selected as shown below:

But still in acid additions I can only see this:

.. can only pick lactic or phosphoric

 

[YeastFace]

It's in the minerals area, as it has an impact on Bicarbonate, Sulphate, and Chloride and not just the PH.

See below:

No CRS

5ml CRS

 

[Old Fart At Play]

It's in the minerals area, as it has an impact on Bicarbonate, Sulphate, and Chloride and not just the PH.

See below:

No CRS
View attachment 92883

5ml CRS
View attachment 92884

Ah! Thanks!. Really confused now as to why there is still acid addition for mash and sparge as separate entries, and why those entries only allow lactic or phosphoric acid.
So Brewfather is allowing for the use of CMS to affect mineral additions, but not to adjust mash pH fully? Weird. But thanks, at least I can see where CRS is appearing.
Incidentally, why is the CRS here in a yellow box? Ta v much for your help
Cheers

 

[foxy]

It's in the minerals area, as it has an impact on Bicarbonate, Sulphate, and Chloride and not just the PH.

See below:

No CRS
View attachment 92883

5ml CRS
View attachment 92884

Seems like a fair bit of Epsom salt in those additions.