water ph and grain effect

[arctic78]

I am just wanting to know ,As i have not been able to find myself, If my water has a starting PH of 7.1 with the addition of the grains would it lower the PH close to the 5.2 mark ?? I know when i brew i can and will test the PH but i would like to know how much of an effect the grain has on lowering the PH. I imagine that different grains and grain amounts will have different effects on the PH ?
I am using
                3.5kg 2 row
                .2kg Crystal 30L
                .1kg carra pils.
this is a partial mash so also adding 1kg of LDME.

Thanks for any help.

[brewfun]

Malt is magical. It does everything it can to become beer. It wants to become beer.

In soft water, malt will naturally lower the mash pH to a beneficial range. In this case, soft means low mineral content, not softened water. A certain amount of minerals in the water is important for yeast health and beer flavor.

Very hard water can be used for brewing, but moderately hard is best for most styles. If your Residual Alkalinity (RA) is around 30 or less, then the mash should settle into the correct range. Getting a water quality report and water spreadsheet is going to put you on the right track.

[arctic78]

 Ok so my water analysis reads as follows.
                                                   Bicarbonate : 95
                                                   chloride       : 13
                                                   calcium       : 12
                                                   magnesium : 1.7
                                                   Potassium   : 0.18
                                                   sodium       : 5
                                                   sulphate     : 12
                                                   PH             : 7.1
So this is neutral water really, alkaline by .1 and also soft if I am getting this right. But after much searching and reading I have come to the conclusion that it is lacking a lot for it to be good brewing water would this be a fair assumption??
what I found online it appears that I am low in a lot of the numbers for certain taste and flavour benefits and also low for some good yeast nutrients , As you have said brewfun is the case with soft water.
I went to the bru'n water site but I do not have excel so I can not use this at the moment to help me make adjustments.
So I guess my main question would be with the water I have could I still make a reasonable  beer. I am also assuming  from what you said that it should settle around the right PH range if I am right thinking I do have soft water.
Also is there anything I can do to slightly improve it until I can get hold of excel and use the bru'n water spread sheet.

Thanks for you help.

[brewfun]

Your water is fine for brewing. You have a lot of room to adjust for various styles and flavor profiles.

Don't worry about the water pH. Unless the pH is strongly influenced by some kind of acid or alkali addition, it isn't influential on mash pH.

The mineral profile you have seems out of balance. The balance between anions and cations is off, significantly. Part of this is that there's no reference for the units used. I had to make some assumptions to get close as I believe the Calcium number isn't ppm. With some assumptions, it seems that you'll get a pH of 5.4 without any adjustment. You can add 5 gm of CaCl per 20 liters to enhance the calcium content, add smoothness and lower the pH to about 5.3.

Of course, there is a lot of room to adjust minerals for a variety of reasons beyond pH. If you add minerals, make sure you have a reason to do so. There is a considerable focus on water as the core issue in homebrewing. Looking too closely on any one issue as the key in brewing success overlooks the fact that brewing is a series of processes all strung together. Like other parts of brewing, water adjustments can have dramatic and beneficial impact on beer. But, I'm not a fan of dogma that pushes towards all water needing to be "built up."

[arctic78]

Great :-)   the numbers I have were ppm I think but I have not got them on hand at the moment. the water I am using comes from a local spring so not sure if that may have an affect on the mineral profile being out?
I appreciate you taking the time to run through this for me and explaining a few things. I do not really want to play around with the water profile stuff a great deal if not necessary  just want to understand it a bit and have ok water for brewing.

Again thanks