I recently posted asking for help figuring out a “tangy” flavor in a dark mild, then did some research and answered my own question I think, concluding it’s very likely attributed to the final pH being too low. I then read about adding in some dissolved baking soda to raise the pH a few point to resolve this. I’m curious whether folks know alternate ways to raise the final pH or think the baking soda is the only (or at least best) route. I’d like to repair an otherwise great beer if I can. Looking for help.
Baking soda will add sodium, which can contribute salty flavor to the beer. A more flavor-neutral option with same effect is pickling lime, which can be found in grocery stores in the canning/jar section, or on Amazon. That’s what I would suggest. I haven’t done this yet but for a while I’ve been saying “if I ever encounter an odd tartness again with any of my beers, I’m gonna add some pickling lime”.
Hope this helps.
If the sodium is kept low, like below 25 ppm, my experience is that you will no saltiness, but actually a bit of sweetness and fullness of flavor.
Dosing it, will most likely oxidize it since you have no way to do so in a closed environment. So you will likely be trading one issue for another. But it is “British beer” so.
1. I have added baking soda with good results. …but it was a long time ago and I don’t recall my dosing rate
- I add liquids like finings to kegs without introducing large amounts of O2 by doing this:
Pour the mixture into a clean sanitized 2L plastic bottle.
Squeeze the air out and put on a carbonator cap.
Pressurize the bottle with a bit of CO2 until it pops back into shape (very short bursts required).
PULL THE KEG PRV to depressurize the keg!
Place a jumper on the bottle
Invert the bottle
Connect the jumper to the gas in post
Allow nearly all the liquid to drain into the keg
Quickly disconnect it before it all empties into the keg.
The goal is to get the liquid in without adding the pressurized CO2/air mixture used to push it in.
Thanks for all the input!! I’m willing to trade some oxidation for the tartness. I don’t expect for the beer to be around very long and I would find a hint of oxidized flavor preferable to the tangy thing I want to shed. Also great description on how to avoid some O2 while adding to the keg. I’m familiar with the salty taste from to much bicarb so will look at my ppm to guide some decision.
Again, thank to all.
You can try dosing a glass after pouring to see whether it does what you want. If you like it you can then do the whole keg.
Good idea.
Yep, good idea - a good way to start and work from there.
While we always state that chalk shouldn’t be used in mashing water. but that’s because there aren’t strong enough acids in the water and mash to dissolve that chalk. But in a finished beer, there are plenty of stronger acids that can dissolve the chalk and be neutralized. So adding chalk is OK in beer for neutralizing excess acidity. Baking soda is OK too and it probably won’t incur too much sodium in achieving acceptable neutralization.
Do try this in a glass of the beer to see if this sort of neutralization is beneficial.
Not a bad way to do it.
Or put a carbonator cap on the 2 liter bottle, put a gas to gas line on the bottle, run the sir from the line, connect to the depressurized keg gas in. About as minimal O2 as one could hope for.
Thanks again to you all for your input. Much appreciated! This weekend I’ll have time to do some of this experimenting - do some mineral dosing in a glass and work from there. This has also been very informative for me. I’ve been brewing for about 12 years total but have not encountered this issue before so never had reason to learn about it and look for remedies. Given that I encountered this and got input here on the forum I was able to share some of this info with my brew club last evening when we had our monthly meeting (by Zoom of course). Bonus is that in the course of presenting my information a fellow member volunteered that he has an extra pH meter. This otherwise might not have come up. So looks like I’m getting a discounted but unused meter which will be helpful in the future. I’ve put off getting one - just haven’t wanted to take that step, but this I can’t pass up. I’m generally happy with the dark mild and will for sure be doing a re-brew, this time attending to my pH more closely.
Martin suggested that I dose a glass of my Wee Heavy with a pinch of gypsum at club night at the Providence Homebrew Con last year to dry the finish out a bit. Although he thought the recipe was spot on, he said it didn’t finish dry enough for the style. I tried it in a glass and was amazed how it changed the finish of the beer, so I modified my water profile to incorporate a bit more gypsum in both the mash and the kettle. Dosing a pint definitely works to change/improve the beer! He made me a believer.
Goose - I had done the same with a beer a while back (can’t recall now what the beer was, maybe an English bitter). I wanted a little more dryness or minerally quality so dosed some gypsum and felt that made the change I was seeking. Good proof of how minerals can be like seasoning for a beer. On that one I was willing to trade allowing a little O2 into the keg in exchange for being more satisfied with the beer.
To follow up on my post, here’s the rest of the story…
I added baking soda to the keg, in the vicinity of 20 - 30 ppm, and viola!!! The undesirable tart/tangy flavor vanished. It is now the beer I wanted to enjoy. Also, after amending the beer I detect no unpleasant flavor resulting from the addition of bicarb - the sodium level is still well within reasonable range, lending no salty element to the flavor. Thanks to all who offered input on this.