Bicarbonate plays a key role in brewing by influencing water alkalinity and mash pH, which can affect the flavor and quality of your beer. In this article, we’ll cover how bicarbonate impacts your brew and how to adjust its levels to achieve the best results.
What is the role of Bicarbonate in brewing?
The primary effect that Bicarbonate has in brewing is increasing the alkalinity of your water. Alkalinity is the ability of water to neutralize or resist changes in acidity. Meaning Bicarbonate will raise the pH of your mash. An increase in pH means the mash is less acidic. Bicarbonate is one of the largest factors of alkalinity in most drinking water.
In many styles of beer, the mash pH will need to be lower, so Bicarbonates can interfere with this balance.
In some dark beers, to get the proper mash pH Bicarbonates may need to be added to increase alkalinity and mash pH.
One potential issue with high bicarbonate levels is the buildup of mineral scale on your equipment. If there’s also a high concentration of Calcium it can create what many call “hard water” when heated. This can lead to a build-up on your equipment that will not only visually look bad but can interfere with its function. This can shorten your equipment’s life or negatively impact the final product.
Bicarbonate amounts in your brewing water
When it comes to Bicarbonates in your brewing water, the levels depend on what type of beer you are wanting to brew. For paler beers you will want your levels to be at 50 ppm or lower, some brewers try to limit their bicarbonate levels closer to 30 ppm.
For darker beers, bicarbonates closer to 100 ppm is a good starting point, since dark beers often require an increase in alkalinity.
Bicarbonate levels above 125 ppm aren’t suitable to brew with.
How to Measure your bicarbonate levels
If you have tested your Alkalinity, then you know approximately your bicarbonate levels. Bicarbonate levels and Alkalinity as CaCO3 will be the same if your pH is less than 8.3. And all water you are using to brew will have a pH less than 8.3. (Hint: if it’s not, you shouldn’t be brewing with it!)
If the pH of your water is below 4.5, it’s too acidic and contains no bicarbonate. For comparison, black coffee typically has a pH around 4.5, so your brewing water shouldn’t begin with such a low pH.
There are two methods to test your Bicarbonate levels, Craft Pro DIY Test Strips and Craft Pro In-Lab testing.
DIY Test Strips
The Craft Pro DIY Test Strips will give you an easy, affordable way to measure bicarbonate with each batch. These will measure bicarbonate along with Hardness, Calcium, Magnesium, and several other key factors for your brew.
The test strips will give you results in a range, meaning you will know if your bicarbonate is 0-25 ppm, 25- 50 ppm, etc.
Craft Pro In-Lab
The In-Lab Craft Pro Test Kit will allow you to send a water sample to our EPA-Certified lab and get exact concentrations for your brewing water or any brewing liquid.
You will know exactly what your bicarbonate is, as well as exact concentrations for other parameters and several brewing specific calculations such as Residual Alkalinity.
Lowering Bicarbonate levels in your water
Boiling to reduce Bicarbonate
Some brewers recommend boiling your water to remove Bicarbonate. The theory behind this is the Bicarbonate will bond with Calcium, forming Calcium Carbonate which is insoluble. After it finishes boiling the solids can be filtered out from the water.
Boiling is easy and free, the largest problem is that it’s hard to replicate the same results over and over if you are wanting a consistent brew.
Calcium
While Calcium doesn’t directly remove bicarbonates from the water, it can counteract its effects by lowering the pH of the mash.
For moderate amounts of bicarbonate, Calcium can make a major impact alkalinity and pH. The amount varies based on several other factors so this may take some testing. If the bicarbonates are significantly higher than your target for your water profile, you will need to remove them another way.
When using Calcium to counteract Bicarbonates, just remember that Calcium also needs to be kept below certain concentrations.
Filter
A Reverse Osmosis (RO) system may filter out Bicarbonate, but it depends on the pH of the water, at lower pH levels the system may not be effective.
In most cases, a RO system will be effective at removing enough of the Bicarbonate from your water to get it within your desired parameters. But it will also remove everything else from your water source, effectively setting it to 0 if the filter is set up correctly.
Remember to test your water after it is filtered, to see exactly what your new starting point is. Your new water profile will lack the minerals that your brew will need, so you’ll have to add them back in and create a new water profile.
How to add Bicarbonate to your water profile
If you are brewing a darker beer and need higher alkalinity, you may want to add Bicarbonate to your water. The easiest way to do this is by adding Sodium Bicarbonate, which is just baking soda.
When buying baking soda for your brew, you don’t need to get anything specialized. Just standard baking soda from your local grocery store will be fine.
Conclusion
Bicarbonate has a major effect on the Alkalinity of your water profile. Getting it to the proper levels can help control your mash pH and the pH of your beer. Bicarbonate levels can vary between beer styles based on if you are doing a lighter or darker beer. Lighter beers need water profiles of lower than 50 ppm Bicarbonate.
