i dont know much about acids or water chemistry, i normally would use brun water but my computer is jacked up and freezes everytime i try to open the spreadsheet, im starting with distilled water, mash volume is 3.75 gallons adding 1 tsp of gypsum and .5 tsp of calcium chloride and the est mash ph is 5.7 so in order to bring it down to 5.4 i need 36.5 ml PA according to this online brewers friend calculator, idk but that seems like an excessive amount of acid, the question is ,is it an excessive amount?
very excessive - there’s an error there.
yeah i figured it was a error, im gonna just toss 2.5% acidulated malt in the mash and if the ph is not low enough just add some PA 1ml at a time until its where i want it to be, cheers
I think it could be possible depending on the concentration. I know the homebrew store I go to has concentrations in bottles as low as 10 or 15%.
Could be possible if it’s a very weak 5% solution. Otherwise unlikely.
IME that Brewers Friend calculator gives some pretty wack acid amounts.
EDIT I just did some quick figuring. From long experience, I’ll say that with all pale malt, RO water, and about 100ppm Ca which I assume you’ll get from your salts (since you gave teaspoons instead of grams, actual dosage is a shot in the dark,) you won’t need any acid at all to get a pH in the correct range. Assuming a 10#, all Pilsner malt grain bill, Bru’n Water confirms pH estimate of 5.51. Further, Bru’n Water calculates that to bring this down to 5.4 with 10% phosphoric acid requires 2 mL/gallon. Lots of assumptions, but hope this helps.
I didn’t do the math, but in my initial response I admit I didn’t allow for the possibility of a very weak concentration of phos acid. Personally, I use 85% phos acid. It’s much more economically beneficial for my brewing schedule.