Another baking soda question mash w/grain

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MM-Brew
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Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by MM-Brew »

I've been reading post for the past 3 day. Ive read a LOT about adding it to low wines and a couple post about birdwatchers but i not found anything about a sugar head w/grain mash. I did read that if it's blue that's bad, it has some ammonia in it . But that's was with some copper in it, if I read that correctly
Here's my question
Is it safe to run a mash w/grain that had 6 to 8 Tablespoon of baking soda added to it. It'll be ran in SS still w/ ceramic cooling beads.
How I got here
This is a 3rd gen of a sweet feed mash. This round I added 1 gal of back set, 1 gal of distilled water (store bought) topped off with boiled city water ( that had cooled down some). I do have 3 fermenter's (25 l x 2 and 1 30l). I added a crushed up Med to LG oyster shell as well. OG was 1.07 in all 3
After 4 days I checked them. All 3 had stalled out with SG of 1.05x. First thing I checked was the PH it was 3 or really close to it. I added pickling lime to all 3 and got the PH up around 4.5 ish. I came back 4 days later and they stalled out again. 2 of them had SG 1.02 and one was 1.04 PH. I checked the PH that had dropped again to around 3 or maybe slightly lower (using PH strips). I then added baking soda to them because I ran out of picking lime.
This is when I read about the ammonia and being blue. Then at that point is when I decided to ask for clarification
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still_stirrin
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by still_stirrin »

You’ll be fine. Run it.
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MM-Brew
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by MM-Brew »

Ty I'll be running it this weekend.
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HDNB
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by HDNB »

if your Ph was low 3's you experienced a bacterial stall. likely one that produced acetic acid which i have just learned from a nice PhD in biochem is toxic to yeast in small doses. he gave me a number like 2PPM but i don't recall the exact number. wasn't much.

raising the ph won't help. you'll get a low yield and sour low wines.

i started a thread here to get some more Ph feedback....

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=70119&p=7516862#p7516862
I finally quit drinking for good.

now i drink for evil.
MM-Brew
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by MM-Brew »

I'll give an update after I run them.
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Saltbush Bill
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by Saltbush Bill »

MM-Brew wrote:I've been reading post for the past 3 day. Ive read a LOT about adding it to low wines and a couple post about birdwatchers but i not found anything about a sugar head w/grain mash.
Baking Soda is only supposed to be used in the making of neutral/ vodka type spirits.
Even then it is only put into low wines not in the wash its self.
Using 4L of backset in a 25-30L wash should not present PH issues. Id suggest you have some other problem going on there.
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by zapata »

I would not run a basic wash, and that would be what I used to decide to run your batch or not. Regardless of the how much baking soda you added, what is the ph now? If still acidic then the baking soda should be no problem. If basic, I would make it acidic.

And I would assume this run's backset is probably so full of salts as to be unworthy of re-using.
MM-Brew
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by MM-Brew »

The current PH is 4.5 to 5. And I'll NOT be running this for the 4th gen. I'll pull out my notes and starting over with spring water.
zapata
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by zapata »

I'd say you're safe to run it, at 4.5 to 5, all that baking soda is various salts now. Probably mostly sodium acetate (useless aside, sodium acetate is the flavoring used in salt and vinegar potato chips).
MM-Brew
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by MM-Brew »

Here's the update. Life has been buzy as of late :wave: . I just finished up with stripping runs. The first one I ran, my yield was lower that I thought it would be :problem: . It was up to 178*f by the time I'd collected the 150 mil for the fores. I collected the rest in 5 gallon carboy. I took it down to 20%. Now that gave it a little bit of cloudiness. On the next run, I charged it :thumbup: with some faints. My yield was a normal amout. I tried something new on this run and pulled a 500 mil sample when it 185*f. At the time it had reading 75%. After 3 days of sitting it was tasty. I'll be keeping that one for sipping on some clear :clap: , once its cut down. Ill be doing the sprit run shortly and post the results. I s
Taste and spit out some of each bucket. Wow :wtf: each one was salty.
MM-Brew
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Re: Another baking soda question mash w/grain

Post by MM-Brew »

I ended up with just over a gallon and a half @ 40%. There was not much flavor on it. I'm going oak a Qt and see what happens. The rest will be used to test flavorings and infusion with fruit.
Thank you for all your help
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