Lactic Acid

DCBC · Oct 29, 2020

Very interesting, thank you Jocky. I bought some citric to make cream ales etc but I do live in a very hard water area so I don't want to end up making alcoholic lemon juice... AMS it is I guess, or a combination perhaps.

EDIT and thanks Hanglow. I have kind of heard of that process before but didn't know it was called that. I will investigate further.

mabrungard · Nov 3, 2020

That tap water has pretty high alkalinity and lactic acid use may not be ideal. The amount that you'd have to add would likely create a lactic taste in the beer. While I do believe in using lactic acid for continental European beers, using AMS or CRS would probably be a better alternative, given your alkalinity.

Another option for that water is to pre-boil that water since it has high Temporary Hardness. The pre-boiling would knock the alkalinity down quite a bit and that MIGHT make it possible to use lactic acid.

The-Engineer-That-Brews · Nov 3, 2020

mabrungard said:
That tap water has pretty high alkalinity and lactic acid use may not be ideal. The amount that you'd have to add would likely create a lactic taste in the beer. While I do believe in using lactic acid for continental European beers, using AMS or CRS would probably be a better alternative, given your alkalinity.

Another option for that water is to pre-boil that water since it has high Temporary Hardness. The pre-boiling would knock the alkalinity down quite a bit and that MIGHT make it possible to use lactic acid.

Hi Martin! Yup I’d not intended to use all lactic, just a proportion alongside the CRS in order to give me a bit more leeway on the other adjustments without sending the calcium too high - but in the end I was able to get a pretty good profile with just the CRS on its own so it’s all good. I’ve also go a RO+DI setup; using that on its own seems to produce rather characterless ales, but dilution is an option :-)
I‘m loving using Bru’n Water by the way, and have the ‘paid‘ version so :hat: to you for that!

DCBC · Nov 3, 2020

Hi Martin, big fan of Bru'n Water and I never plan a brew day without it!

A few years ago you wrote this post in which you wrote that "the effect of minor water heating is less understood. Since the solubility of CO2 is inversely proportional to the water's temperature, it follows that minor heating will produce some of the effects of boiling. "

Do you know if there is any further research in this area? Since strike water is generally heated to at least 70°C (158F), is it yet understood how much this is a factor in the removal of temporary hardness, and if so, how would you recommend that this be mitigated for when planning a brew day? thanks.

F00b4r · Nov 3, 2020

I think there may also be some confusion because there are two paths being discussed to attempt to achieve the same end. The British method is to reduce alkalinity to the right level for the grist and then it follows it will hit the right pH, whereas the method now commonly used by a lot of US homebrewers (and some in the UK as the internet and software like BnW isn’t constrained by geographical boundaries) is all about targeting mash pH (and often chasing it during the mash if it’s off; not necessarily a good idea as you can just adjust the next brew or mini mash before if you are unsure with a widely new grist).
They do look to achieve a similar aim but can confuse things when people are talking about both at once.

Hanglow said:
I have thought about treating my water with citric acid before in a fruity pale ale. It might go with that, otherwise I think it would taste a bit odd. Probably not as bad as using acetic though!

If you really want to get into acidification, look into making a sauergut reactor. Biological acidification has other benefits (as well as being reinheitsgebot compliant), plus if you like good german beers it's one of those elusive essential flavours you get in some of the better ones.

Being Reinheitsgebot compliant is not a good thing, it’s little more than a snake oil sales pitch. I would be interested in trying a blind taste test though around biological acidification.