[Steve L]

Sorry to resurrect an older thread but I have a Bru'n water question about acidifying sparge water. My water typically has an alkalinity of about 170. When acidifying my sparge water I know I have to input the Alkalinity amount into the spread sheet including any dilution (with Distilled usually), Do I just measure the sparge water PH with my meter before acidifying and input the measured PH amount or is PH not as important? My water PH is about 7.8 without any treatment.

Thanks

[mabrungard]

You will find that the actual water pH prior to acidifying is relatively meaningless. It has only minor effect on the resulting calculations. I suggest you play with the calculator a bit to see the effect of initial pH. Maybe move the initial pH value by about 1 (up or down) and you should see that the amount of acid required will not change greatly. It is the initial alkalinity that is the elephant in the room!

[Steve L]

You will find that the actual water pH prior to acidifying is relatively meaningless. It has only minor effect on the resulting calculations. I suggest you play with the calculator a bit to see the effect of initial pH. Maybe move the initial pH value by about 1 (up or down) and you should see that the amount of acid required will not change greatly. It is the initial alkalinity that is the elephant in the room!

LOL, I've had skeletons in my closet but this will be my first elephant in the room.
Thanks for the help and guidance!

[Steve L]

Thought of another question involving sparge water acidification. I typically do not add a mineral addition to my sparge water, opting instead to add it directly to the kettle. As a result I figure my sparge acidification using the pre-adjustment level of alkalinity. This results in having to use more Lactic acid obviously. Am I better off adding my mineral addition to the sparge water and reducing the amount of lactic acid I'm using? I did a search about whether or not to adjust sparge water and seemed to get somewhat mixed results...