I’m finally jumping into water chemistry after 12 years of Brewing and playing with Bru’n water after getting my tap water report.
On the Sparge acidification tab , It’s telling me to acidify my Sparge water but I’ve read online when batch sparging, some people don’t. Says 26ml of 10% phosphoric acid which should be below taste threshold ( 71ppm phosphate ). My water pH is 8.3 and my starting water alkalinity is 137. I’m just wondering what you all do? Acidify or not for batch sparging? Thanks.
I adjust my total brewhaus liquor to 5.5 pH, heat it all to strike temp, then I drain off my sparge liquor, add Brewtan B to the strike liquor and pump the strike liquor into the mash(underlet). Once I have the pump set to the flow I want (slow), I add my grain and mash salts to the MLT.
When it’s time to batch sparge I use the reserved adjusted sparge liquor.
I don’t think there’s any benefit to acidifying the sparge water for batch sparging. The mash pH will not raise during the end of the lauter like in traditional lautering. OTOH it won’t hurt anything either.
Unless you have extreme water, there is no need to anything for the sparge if you batch sparge. I didn’t for over 20 years and experienced no issues.
Denny, what was the ppm Alkalinity of your water?
Op posted same topic on HBTALK Martin also chimed in.
74. RA is 45.
The only reason I adjust all brewhaus liquor to 5.5 pH is because it’s easier than adjusting strike liquor alone. IOW the amount of acid would be too small for me to measure for strike liquor alone. I was using 1/8 tsp 10% phosphoric acid but have been dialing that in by using even less lately which means using a graduated syringe. Like you said it doesn’t hurt and it’s just easier to measure.