Mash pH high when brewing Wheat beers?

[bundy]

Since calcium is not a requirement in brewing water, losing some calcium via a phosphoric acid addition is not a big deal. More importantly, to create that calcium precipitation, the calcium concentration has to be at a fairly high level. Under that condition, the loss of some calcium is even less significant. So don't sweat the loss of calcium when using phosphoric acid.

Lactic acid does have its place in brewing. Due to the requirements of the Reinheitsgebot, German beers always include a significant lactic acid content from either acid malt or saurgut usage. Lactic acid is probably one of those nuances of German beers that make those beers what they are.

Thanks mabrungard - I have over the last few days been reading many of your posts / blogs on water treatment and have (I think) learnt a lot.

I have since also found a source of Rainwater which I intend to use for my next Hefe, however even then with I will need to use Acid (Lactic or Phos) to reduce my mash pH to the desired range. (Whilst also keeping mineral additions within a reasonable band) I've put the figures through both BrunWater and the EzWater Calculator and consistently get told I need around 6 - 7 mls of Lactic acid with a 5kg Grain bill. (I did have to adjust BrunWater to use the Mash pH of wheat as 6.05 to get the same results) but otherwise everything else works out as close to the same as is feasible for me to worry about.

So my ongoing concern remains regarding "how much is too much" Lactic Acid to use in regards to taste? Opinion is divided and I guess in some cases based on circumstancial evidence at best.

Some say max 3% of Acidulated Malt in a Grain bill but then I note on the Weyermann website they say up to10% is fine (Page 26 of this article) - http://www.weyermann.de/downloads/pdf/Weyermann_TKW_Mash-pH_2010.pdf

At this stage my plan is to use 6.5ml of Lactic Acid (equates to ~ 5% of the grain bill) and aiming for a Mash pH of 5.5.

It may work it may not, but I figure it has to be better than doing nothing and ,mashing at a pH of above 6

 

[mabrungard]

Using 88% lactic acid at a rate approaching 1/3 ml/L is where you will likely have a taste impact. Some tasters can taste it at slightly lower concentration. If you can keep the lactic usage to 1/4 ml/L or less, its unlikely that you would have a lactic twang in the flavor, however you could end up over acidifying your beer if the starting water alkalinity is very low (ie: distilled or RO water).

 

[evanmilton]

We use lactic acid and salts and it works well, tried acidulated malt last batch at 3% and it hit the right PH but we got a different end taste we weren't expecting , not sure if it was the malt or not but will stick to the lactic. Also buy a PH meter, pretty cheap and accurate as you can calibrate then pretty easily.