[hike20]

I just got my Zymurgy and was excited to see the water articles from Martin! In the article related to NEIPA, Martin mentions using citric acid as an alternative to other acids. I normally use phosphoric, which has it's strength on the label. I have a bag of solid food grade citric acid but I'm not sure how to use it to acidify the mash. My water is from a RO system. Bru'n Water has an option for citric acid, but what do I use for the strength box? 100%? There's nothing else listed on the label, but somehow I doubt that it's that pure.

[Todd H.]

Martin should probably answer this since it is his software, but a quick google turned up pure anhydrous citric acid on amazon, so yes yours is likely pure (not analytical grade, but pure enough).
When you are dealing with solutions made from powders, % refers to g/100mL, so 100% citric acid solution would be 100g in 100mL water (for solutions made from solutions, it is a little different).  I have no idea what its solubility is.  You should be able to enter whatever % you like in Bru'n Water, see how many mL it says to add, then do some math to convert that into mg or grams or anhydrous citric acid, and add that directly to your strike water, rather than making a stock solution.  Or just make a stock solution.
I tend to take the path of least steps (i.e. just add powder to strike water).

[zwiller]

I am at work but I think the full version BNW can do this.  I really think he is correct for NEIPA. 

[hike20]

Yep, I have the full version. But it has a field for acid strength so mainly need to know what to put there. I'd also like to know if I can just add it straight to my mash water or not (I assume so too). I was going to send an email to Martin about it but figured others could benefit from the answer.

[kramerog]

Using RO water, you probably won't use enough citirc acid to make a flavor impact unless you also use a base like pickling lime (calcium hydroxide?).

[zwiller]

I thought it would populate when you select it...  WRT flavor.  With my tap (90ppm alkalinity) I get flavor from lactic acid so I suspect you also get it from citric, but you are right, if no alkalinity maybe not so much.  Good question though!  I am also long overdue to bug him how to estimate sauergut somehow. 

[mabrungard]

When one of the solid acids (citric, tartaric, malic) is selected, they no longer rely on the acid strength settings. However, you do need to select Solid in the (%, N, M, Solid) dropdown box.

As mentioned above, if you are using a low alkalinity water for brewing, its unlikely that you'd need to add enough citric acid to create much in the way of flavor effects. But if your water has alkalinity, it could be pretty easy to incur flavor effects from citric. You would need to be careful in that case.

[hike20]

Thanks for clarifying!