[Dave King]

I'd like to use Sulfuric Acid to correct my tap water, but can't find a source, except Fisher Scientific, super expensive, like $300 for a quart, don't recall exact cost.  I'm in Endicott, NY, near Binghamton, S. of Syracuse.  Thanks,

[BrewArk]

Did you try http://www.cynmar.com/home?

[mabrungard]

Be sure to obtain high purity acid for any brewing usage. Grade designations such as: Reagent ACS, Reagent, FCC, or USP should be the only acid grades used for brewing. Officially, FCC (Food Chemical Codex) is the food-grade material that you should be using in any brewing. However, not all acids are routinely available in that grade. The other grade designations are supposed to be as free of deleterious matter and should generally be equivalent to FCC.

Do check out how much acid you will be using when selecting the acid strength from the supplier. Plug the strength value into Bru'n Water and see how much of that acid you would be dosing your typical batch size with. If it's high strength acid, it may only take teeny amounts to reach your treatment goals. In that case, you may not need to be buying a lot of that high strength acid and you might consider buying a lower strength or getting a smaller volume of acid.

Getting high strength acid typically saves money, but those acids are more dangerous and require very high precaution when handling. Diluting high strength acid down to lower strength can make them a little safer to handle.

Be aware that there are shipping limitations. You will hear about a term "hazardous quantity" in the chemical shipping industry. If I recall correctly, the typical hazardous quantity of strong acid in the US is 1 gallon. Shipping for a hazardous quantity is quite expensive. Therefore, be looking to purchase a maximum of only a liter or two of any acid to avoid the hazardous quantity problems.

And for God's sake, be sure you've read up on how to handle and dilute these acids and have the personal protective gear for working with it. This is not the time for carelessness!

[erockrph]

I don't have much to add to what Martin said other than: a) USP is pharmaceutical grade, so that is just as good as food grade and b) if you're going to dilute it, make sure you do it right. Always add your acid to cold water, not the other way around, and do it really slow.

[Dave King]

Thanks Martin, erockrph, Brewark, great information.  I am a Metallurgist, comfortable handling acids, but prefer not to deal with concentrated acids. 

I see several 1/2 or 1 liter versions in Cynmar's listing, but they don't mention grade.  Some are 18M, which is 98%, no thanks.  There are "10% solution" and "10% V/V", which make no sense to me.  I thought liguids were normally measured in volume %, but what's "solution?"  Again, there's no mention of grade. 

For now, I'm going to try and balance my water chemistry with Phosphoric acid and salts.  Does everything have to be hard?  Thanks, guys.   

[Kinetic]

I'd pass on the 18 molar acid too.  Yikes.  Mess you up!

[69franx]

I've recently been to 2 out of 3 close by LHBS and each had 88% Lactic acid. I am way too new to water treatment to differentiate between lactic and the other options you have mentioned, but it fits very well into Bru'Water to get the job done. I am assuming it is food grade because of where I purchased it, but dont really know if it fits a different need than what you are looking for. For my water, I needed only .7ml in mash and .2ml in sparge, easy peasy!
Edit: the bottle I bought was a half liter, and was under $10, so there are cheap solutions as far as I can tell