Kettle/sparge acid - water calc

WesBrew

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When I choose an acid type with target ph filled in, & put something in the acid amount field, its not telling me the kettle water ph, or if it’s high or low or anything .
 
ok. my mash ph was 5.3, and I had 5.3 as target, so nothing happened....I was able to get the green (add ____ml acid) to populate with something if I dropped the target below 5.3. -only in ml's though, none of the other units would work. this section of the water calculator is for the sparge water in the HLT, Its not calculating what this ph is, so if I add no acid I wont know where my mash ph will be when I add untreated water. is that right or am I missing something?
 
Thanks for reaching out @RustyBeer could you provide a screenshot or two of where you're working just so we're on the same page?

Also paging @Yooper whenever water chemistry is involved.
 
Here’s a pic of the screen
 

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Here’s a pic of the screen
I'm sure it's because your mash PH is predicted to fall around 5.3
If you were aiming at 5.2 PH it will estimate an amount of acid to add to hit that ph target number.
 
Ok. I thought the sparge water would calculate separately. I was assuming that I would need to get the ph of the hlt of sparge water down near the target so as not to raise the ph of the mash
I’ll change the mash target to see if anything happens, also I’ll also put in some absurd amount of sparge water acid and see if that has any affect on the mash ph
 
Lowering the target pH to 5.1 got it to populate with an ad acid. The second photo where I added a ridiculous amount of acid to the Sparge water didn’t do anything to the mask PH, that’s why I’m wondering how this is calculated
 

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Lowering the target pH to 5.1 got it to populate with an ad acid. The second photo where I added a ridiculous amount of acid to the Sparge water didn’t do anything to the mask PH, that’s why I’m wondering how this is calculated

I’m confused- you’ve got two different things here. One is mash pH, and of course that is unrelated to the sparge water pH, because the mash is over before you sparge. Or am I misunderstanding what you are asking?

The mash pH is calculated for the mash, by using the additions, water, and acids (if any) in the mash. The sparge water pH is calculated separately, for those who don’t sparge with RO or distilled water.
 
Ok. What and how it’s calculated was confusing me
 
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Alright this must be assuming I treated the full water volume at the beginning . . For bigger batches I have to add sparge water to the hlt . Is there a way for me to handle the water separately?
 
Ok. What and how it’s calculated was confusing me
-you cleared up that this only calculates the ph of the sparge water-not tied into anything in the mash tun. So the expected 5.32 ph is irrelevant. All Good
- if I set a sparge water ph target of 5.4 and select lactic acid, (for this batch it’s about 3.8 gallons of 7.8 ph tap water) acid needs to be added to get that 7.8 down. the calculator isn’t telling me to add any acid or what the current sparge water ph is.
-If I guess an amount of acid to add, say .5 teaspoon, the calculation still doesn’t tell me what the sparge water ph is,
- I’m not sure it’s doing what it’s supposed to do, or I’m doing something wrong

Your sparge water pH is entered into the box. Then, you put the kind of acid you have, and click it, and it gives you the amount of acid needed to get to a pH of 5.6 (or whatever you choose).
In this case, I’ve chosen lactic acid, which auto populates with 88%. Change it if you have a different strength. With phosphoric acid, I have 10%, but it comes in other strengths so make sure you check you label.
I put here that I wanted to get to a sparge water pH of 5.25 (which is really not necessary, as it’s low, but to show the process):’

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It tells me I need .34 ml of lactic acid added to my sparge water to get that pH of the sparge water.

Then, if you click “save/update” when finished, and update the recipe when you return to the recipe, it will fill in as “other ingredients”:
 
that makes sense, but I don’t see on that tab where you enter the sparge water ph. There would be no questions if I saw that. Assuming that we are acidifying the strike water and sparge water separately, the calculator should tell me to add acid to get from 7.8 ph to 5.4. unless I’m doing something wrong somewhere else
 
I figured this out.

Its key to know if brewers friend is acidifying all of the brewing water together, before you get to the sparge water acidification tab.

The answer: yes it does. To acidify the water separately for strike and sparge, you have to check the box for (acidify mash only) in the acidify water tab, which is above the acidify sparge tab.

I didn’t check that box in my example above, so the calculator was assuming I’ve already lowered the ph of the sparge water- and wasn’t telling me to add anything.
 
I suppose it would be helpful to have a (your sparge water ph is currently x.x) at the top of the tab
 
It’s all in there, but it is part of the whole “fill in the blanks” process as you go through the sheet. If you start from the top, you get this choice:
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Then, open the next area, and so on.



You’ll get to the mash tabs first, and this is one:
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Then, as you finish, you will get to sparge water acidification, which we’ve discussed above. If you use the same water (not separated out in the very top box by checking the box), it will calculate that water.
 

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