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Titratable Acidity

269 bytes added, 16:34, 7 May 2015
m
Minor tweaking of pH and acid dissociation discussion
===Why TA?===
When attempting to use pH for sensory parameters (how sour something tastes), the measurement falls short. Humans perceive acidity from tasting acids, not rather than the dissociated H+ ionswhich determine pH. In a With strong acids, where the H+ ions are fully dissociated from the remaining acidmolecules, the amount of acid is always proportional equal to the amount of H+ ions. However, lactic acid, the primary acid in sour beer, is a weak acid. For various reasons a weak acid does Weak acids do not completely ionize/dissociate, leaving some portion of the H+ still bound to the acid. The degree to which a weak acid dissociates depends on the identity of the acid and the composition of the solution it is in.
Any acid not dissociated (in other words, an acid still holding onto its H+) does not affect pH. On the other hand, humans will perceive an increased "sourness" based upon the amount of acid in a beer, dissociated or not. The best way to test for total acidity, regardless of dissociation, is using a test called ''Titratable Acidity''.
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