Planning to brew a Double IPA and was following Tasty McDole’s IPA Water Profile. Ca-110ppm, Mg-18ppm, Na-17ppm, SO4-350ppm, Cl-50ppm
I plan to brew with Distilled Water and likely will just be all Rahr 2 row with a little bit of wheat malt and some dextrose. I don’t seem to need any Acid Malt or Acid additions as I plan to use about 1.75 grams Gypsum per gallon about .1 grams CaCl per gallon, about .5 grams epsom salts per gallon and about .2 grams per gallon of canning salt.
Do these numbers look okay in your experience for a hoppy beer? Looks to hit most of my numbers for CA, CL, SO4, Magnesium and sodium. PH estimate is about 5.39
While a mash pH of 5.2 does make many styles crisp, I haven’t found that a pH that low is ideal for pale ales and IPA with their hoppiness and bittering. I find that bumping the pH up to around 5.4 works better for me in those styles.
Since my expected PH is 5.39 and the Rahr 2 row might lower that to perhaps 5.36 should I buffer with a tiny bit of chalk or some dark malt like Carafa III, or just leave alone?
A) I agree with the pH target close to 5.4 for Pale Ales and IPA’s. 5.2 is a good target for lagers and Belgians, but I think it might muddy things a bit for hoppy ales.
B) Tasty knows IPA’s, so it is worth it to try his water as is.
C) That said, after trying higher sulfate levels, I’ve found that my own taste is for much lower levels in my IPA’s. I don’t go over 200ppm any more, and typically use 125-150ppm. Like I said, you should absolutely try Tasty’s water as-is. But if you find the beer to be too minerally for your tastes, then you my want to try something like 150ppm in a future batch for comparison.
I brewed quite a few APAs and IPAs with the Tasty/Pale Ale profile and have backed off, too. I’ve been using around 150ppm SO4 lately and liking it. I still end up fairly dry since I use very little crystal and finish around 1.010.
All of the suggestions are good and work but there is no substitute for trying various methods. When debating on these sort of things, I suggest you identify a commercial example that is similar to what you are trying to and then we could offer better advice.
I find myself wondering the role hop choice makes in this discussion of pH in IPA’s. In other words take your typical juicy (I use that descriptor for Denny’s benefit) NE IPA compared to a PNW dank, piney, citrusy IPA. I would imagine pH would affect these differently.
Does anyone have any experience with this? By ‘this’ I specifically mean changing pH to match hop character.
Yep, for danky go higher 5.4 for juicy go lower 5.2. “It has been shown that this solubility increases with pH (see Figure 4) [Briggs, 2004] which is why the bitterness extraction from hops is greater at a higher boil pH. Many brewers, however, have reported that the quality of the bitterness extracted at high boil pH is perceived as being harsher compared to bitterness gained from a boil at a lower pH.” http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_pH_affects_brewing
Also, the sparge/pre boil pH are equally important… Mash pH is not set and forget. My personal approach is to acidify sparge liquor to same of mash.