[BrewBama]

I plug my grain bill into a calculator. In other words, I don't physically Ck the mash for pH. I go with the calculation. Close enough. Once closed, I don't open the mash/lauter tun until I drain it. I break up brew day into short blocks of time so that could be hours later. (I prep early -sometimes the night before, I mash in and close up the tun in the AM until I get the time to boil later in the day.)


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[juggabrew303]

Definitely don't check mash pH in the first 10 minutes. Those reactions take a little while to occur. The pH will change during the course of a mash. It is the final pH that's most important.

It's also really important that the brewer mix all the minerals and acids into the water before adding the grain. It's really hard to mix all that stuff together evenly otherwise.

Given the prevalence of mediocre beer from various brewpubs, it should be no surprise that many brewers don't adjust their water. Don't be one of those brewers.

Thanks Martin.  I was curious myself after my last kölsch where the mash PH 15min in was 5.17 and 5.3 at 60min.  I recall you/or someone else mentioning the PH will creep toward 5.4 toward end of mash...correct me if I'm wrong


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[PORTERHAUS]

Definitely don't check mash pH in the first 10 minutes. Those reactions take a little while to occur. The pH will change during the course of a mash. It is the final pH that's most important.

It's also really important that the brewer mix all the minerals and acids into the water before adding the grain. It's really hard to mix all that stuff together evenly otherwise.

Given the prevalence of mediocre beer from various brewpubs, it should be no surprise that many brewers don't adjust their water. Don't be one of those brewers.

Thanks Martin.  I was curious myself after my last kölsch where the mash PH 15min in was 5.17 and 5.3 at 60min.  I recall you/or someone else mentioning the PH will creep toward 5.4 toward end of mash...correct me if I'm wrong.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think I remember hearing Martin say that as well, to the extent that either high or low the mash ph will drive to regulate itself towards 5.4

I have been checking twice just out of my own curiosity and just like the other night I had a mash ph at 10 mins or so that was around 5.3, half way through the mash it was still there. I do not do a lot of water adjustments other than using lactic acid, I wonder if it takes longer for the mash to change/stabilize when there are added salts or adjustments being made with the mash.

[brewsumore]

Interesting.  Using ColorpHast strips I don't always check pH at the end of the mash but always 12 - 15 minutes into the mash.  When I do check pH at the end of the mash usually it's very close to the same reading I got the first time I checked it.

[curtdogg]

Definitely don't check mash pH in the first 10 minutes. Those reactions take a little while to occur. The pH will change during the course of a mash. It is the final pH that's most important.

It's also really important that the brewer mix all the minerals and acids into the water before adding the grain. It's really hard to mix all that stuff together evenly otherwise.

Given the prevalence of mediocre beer from various brewpubs, it should be no surprise that many brewers don't adjust their water. Don't be one of those brewers.

Martin, do you acidify your sparge water?


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[mabrungard]

Martin, do you acidify your sparge water?

Sparging water acidification is performed in order to reduce its alkalinity. I use RO water and it already has low alkalinity, so I don't need to acidify that sparging water. If I was using my high alkalinity tap water, I certainly would acidify. Its very helpful for beer quality to neutralize sparging water alkalinity to under 50 ppm as CaCO3. It's even better to knock that down to under 25 ppm.

[curtdogg]

Martin, do you acidify your sparge water?

Sparging water acidification is performed in order to reduce its alkalinity. I use RO water and it already has low alkalinity, so I don't need to acidify that sparging water. If I was using my high alkalinity tap water, I certainly would acidify. Its very helpful for beer quality to neutralize sparging water alkalinity to under 50 ppm as CaCO3. It's even better to knock that down to under 25 ppm.

Great to kmow. I too use RO water and have not adjusted pH for sparge water.
I read a recipe that said to sparge with a pH of 6. I was under the assumption that reducing the pH of sparge water helped keep the boil pH I'm the range needed per the recipe.

Thanks.

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[curtdogg]

Martin, do you acidify your sparge water?

Sparging water acidification is performed in order to reduce its alkalinity. I use RO water and it already has low alkalinity, so I don't need to acidify that sparging water. If I was using my high alkalinity tap water, I certainly would acidify. Its very helpful for beer quality to neutralize sparging water alkalinity to under 50 ppm as CaCO3. It's even better to knock that down to under 25 ppm.

by reducing the alkalinity are you in turn reducing the buffering capacity?


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[mabrungard]

by reducing the alkalinity are you in turn reducing the buffering capacity?

That is correct. Alkalinity is another name for the activity of the carbonate buffer system in water. High alkalinity is evidence that there is a lot of carbonate species in the water. The species present in water is dependent upon the water's pH.

PS: Alkalinity is not the same as pH.

[curtdogg]

by reducing the alkalinity are you in turn reducing the buffering capacity?

That is correct. Alkalinity is another name for the activity of the carbonate buffer system in water. High alkalinity is evidence that there is a lot of carbonate species in the water. The species present in water is dependent upon the water's pH.

PS: Alkalinity is not the same as pH.

Yes sir, I understand.
Acid reduces the buffering capacity so that the sparge water will not affect the ph of the mash.
RO already has decreased or no buffering capacity due to stripping of the minerals.

Lets say I want a target pre boil pH.
If adjusting the pH of the sparge is not ideal. How would I go about bringing the pH of the pre boil wory into my desired range? Is there a calculator you can reccomend.
I understand that once i added the salts and grain to the mash water I effectively increased the buffering capacity of the wort.

I'm probably overthinking this.
I really appreciate your time Martin, thank you.

Curtis.

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[denny]

by reducing the alkalinity are you in turn reducing the buffering capacity?

That is correct. Alkalinity is another name for the activity of the carbonate buffer system in water. High alkalinity is evidence that there is a lot of carbonate species in the water. The species present in water is dependent upon the water's pH.

PS: Alkalinity is not the same as pH.

Yes sir, I understand.
Acid reduces the buffering capacity so that the sparge water will not affect the ph of the mash.
RO already has decreased or no buffering capacity due to stripping of the minerals.

Lets say I want a target pre boil pH.
If adjusting the pH of the sparge is not ideal. How would I go about bringing the pH of the pre boil wory into my desired range? Is there a calculator you can reccomend.
I understand that once i added the salts and grain to the mash water I effectively increased the buffering capacity of the wort.

I'm probably overthinking this.
I really appreciate your time Martin, thank you.

Curtis.

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I'm pretty sure Martin would recommend this.....https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

[curtdogg]

by reducing the alkalinity are you in turn reducing the buffering capacity?

That is correct. Alkalinity is another name for the activity of the carbonate buffer system in water. High alkalinity is evidence that there is a lot of carbonate species in the water. The species present in water is dependent upon the water's pH.

PS: Alkalinity is not the same as pH.

Yes sir, I understand.
Acid reduces the buffering capacity so that the sparge water will not affect the ph of the mash.
RO already has decreased or no buffering capacity due to stripping of the minerals.

Lets say I want a target pre boil pH.
If adjusting the pH of the sparge is not ideal. How would I go about bringing the pH of the pre boil wory into my desired range? Is there a calculator you can reccomend.
I understand that once i added the salts and grain to the mash water I effectively increased the buffering capacity of the wort.

I'm probably overthinking this.
I really appreciate your time Martin, thank you.

Curtis.

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I'm pretty sure Martin would recommend this.....https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

Yes sir, i do use that program but at the moment I dont have excel access.
Ive read through the instruction but dont recall anything about calculating how much acid per gallon to adjust pH.

Thanks Denny.

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[syncopadence]

Agreed with dmtaylor. I've always heard 10 minutes is a good amount of time.

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