Residual alkalinity & lactic acid

[Brucey224]

I'm in an area with LOADS of chalk in the tap water so my alkalinity hardness is over 200ppm.
What have people found is the best way to remove alkalinity from water? Ive boiled and cooled but still need to add quite a lot of lactic acid (6ml to 15 litres strike water) just to reach a mash pH of 5.6. Also added 7ml lactic to 18 litres of sparge water as instructed by bru'un water spreadsheet to get rid of residual alkalinity. Ended up with a 23 litre batch and have found I'm getting noticeable sour taste in beer...
Anyone ever had a similar problem?

 

[strange-steve]

Lactic acid is only suitable for small alkalinity adjustments for the very reason you've noticed, it can leave an unwanted sourness. Get yourself some CRS, it'll do a much better job.

 

[Brucey224]

THANKS!
will adding CaS04 and caCl also help? My water also happens to be really low in chlorides and sulphates so i dont think I'll making it too minerally by adding that in

 

[strange-steve]

THANKS!
will adding CaS04 and caCl also help? My water also happens to be really low in chlorides and sulphates so i dont think I'll making it too minerally by adding that in

It will help, calcium reactions in the mash cause the pH to drop so if you get your calcium over 100ppm you'll need a bit less acid to hit the same pH. If your water is low in sulphate and chloride as you say then you'll also probably see a big improvement in flavour if you increase these. That being said I only recommend you make adjustments if you know firstly what is in your water, and secondly why you're making the adjustment.

Also don't worry about your beer being too minerally. I reckon you'd need to add a lot more than you think before that happens.

 

[Brucey224]

I get my water report from thames water and they quote deviations about mean in concentration of minerals between samples so ive got pretty good confience that the Cl and SO4 are 25-30ppm each. Will try boost them up a bit. I had found that before making any adjustments my beers did lack a lot of the flavour i was hoping for and tasted kinda dulled so that would make sense. Have been going through the water adjustment section of john palmer's how to brew