Martin,
Can you use baking soda to adjust in finished beer? seems like it should work but if there is an expert around, check with the expert.
well in an attempt to Answer My Own Question I added a dusting of baking soda to my glass of stout I recently brewed with late mash addition and RO water. It had a slightly tart quality to start with and the baking soda knocked it out.
Going back to my bru’n water sheet for that brew day I added the dark grains in and balanced the resulting pH drop with baking soda and came up with 6 grams total for 10 gallons. I think I will ad 3 grams of baking soda to each keg as it was noticeably better.
I brewed a Pale Ale six weeks or so ago, using a “tried and true” recipe, but with my first ever water additions. It turned out to have a bit of a sharp tang that I figured was from the lactic acid I had added (2.9ml in the mash and 0.8 in the sparge). I experimented with a couple of 8 oz pours dosed with a tiny measured bit of baking soda, and it seemed to help. I ended up putting 5 grams of baking soda in the (slightly less than) 5 gallons of Pale. I also added some dry hopping, since the hops aroma/flavor seemed to be diminished, too. While the beer isn’t quite as tasty as previous versions, it’s pretty good and certainly more enjoyable than it was originally.
I’m going to be more aware of the effects of lactic in the future. And I need to read that Water book…
Yes as you already found, post fermentation pH adjustment is fine. It is primarily affecting taste.
The same thing can be performed in any beer…either raising or lowering the beer pH to meet taste expectations.
This is really cool to think about. What a huge change in procedures from when I started brewing nearly 17 years ago.
it is, and it’s a great way to illustrate the effect. I might work out a presentation for my brew club actually. I dosed my stout with so little and had my wife taste the two samples. She picked out the doctored one right away. said it was less bitter and tasted a little ‘sweeter’
+1. Sure is. Amazing how far things have come.
How about writing it up on experimentalbrew.com? You could be an IGOR!
sure! wait, you mean I’m not already an IGOR?
Well yeah, you are. We gotta come up with some ay to acknowledge that!