Dropping mash water pH

[Cereal]

Hi, I'm planning on starting my 1st AG attempt this week and have been looking at my local water, pH is around 6.9 -7.1. Can I dose citric acid powder to drop the pH but not add any flavour or taste issues? If the citric isn't suitable, any suggestions for an alternative?


Thanks in advance for any answersto my noob question!

[RdeV]

The water is near neutral and you can indeed use citric acid in the strike water to drop pH, however it isn't pH that's most important- its the alkalinity and enough calcium. Try a batch without it, if your efficiency is off, then look at salt adjustments to address both of those issues. Alternatively, if you have major ion data for your water, plug the details into one of the online calculators, beer apps or spreadsheets.

[Eric]

The pH of the mash is important. It will be determined when mixing acidic grains with alkaline water. Darker (roasted) grains are more acidic, so are mashed with more alkaline water (neutralising more acid) than would be mixed with pale malt, to achieve an optimal value of mash pH.
The value you need to know for your water is its alkalinity which can be measured units of mg/litre of CaCO3. CRS is perhaps the most common acid used in water treatment.
The pH of your water is nothing more than an indicator and not a value you might use in any predictive calculation.
Having said all that, looking at that pH value I'm not sure you should be thinking about adding acid. I'd advise you find more about your water.

[boingy]

I reckon we should invent another word for alkalinity. The problem stems from school. Me and about another zillion folk were introduced to pH paper in Science lessons and told that it indicated how acid or alkaline a liquid is. I'm pretty sure this is the cause of the perpetual confusion between pH and alkalinity. Maybe we need to abolish science lessons and teach brewing instead.

Anyway, I digress.

Cereal, for your first few AGs I'd suggest forgetting about all pH, alkalinity and water treatments. Focus on hitting the right mash temperature and on sanitisation and you will make beer. Get the basics under your belt and then worry about the other stuff on later brews.

[Cereal]

Thanks for the replies. I can get hold of the hardness/alkalinity information for my water without too much stress, I live in NE Lincolnshire which is mostly borehole supplied so the water is quite hard with not too much temp CaCO3. I'll give my first AG a go and see how it turns out, and then look at tinkering with future batches.