[novafire]

I know that the type of malted barley (Crystal, 2 row, roast) all have different effects on mash pH, but how do malted wheat, raw wheat, flaked wheat, flaked barley, flaked corn, oats, and other adjuncts effect mash pH?

Should they usually be treated like base malt in pH calcs such as Bru'n Water?

[novafire]

So is this just a silly question?  Or does no one know the answer(s)?

[mabrungard]

In my opinion, most should respond like base malts.  In the case of flaked grains, they are quite similar to low kilned malts (ie base malts).  They are typically a small proportion of a grist, so their contribution is small.  Unfortunately, the same thing can be said of crystal and roasted malts and we know that their contributions to mash pH are not small.  To my knowledge, this has not been studied yet. 

[novafire]

Thanks for the reply.  One of the reasons I was curious is the fact that I have really alkaline water and therefore bad luck with making lighter colored beers, but the few wheat beers that I have made have come out really well without water mods.  I have also made a few lighter beers with large amounts of flaked barley in them with good results. 

I may have just lucked out in those cases and maybe the wheat malt and flaked grains really had nothing to do with it.

[rcj1972]

I've been noticing something similar.  When I add flaked barley to my german pils (8lbs pils malt, 1lb flaked barley, 4 oz acid malt), the mash pH is routinely in the low 5s (e.g., 5.2), whereas the same recipe with all pils malt (9lbs pils malt and 4oz. acid malt) generally results in a mash pH of 5.4 or 5.5. 

This seems like something worth doing some research on.

-Bob