Calibration, cleaning, and storage solutions have been ordered. I was low on Starsan, CaCl, Gypsum, and nutrients too so I was due for an order.
I now have everything I need to accurately measure and adjust pH. Does anyone know of a handy and reliable chart with good wort pH and final beer pH by style? I guess I don’t need them all. My style schedule for the rest of the year is Saison, American Wild (which I have a handle on pH with those), then Scottish, APA, Helles and Dunkel.
It is not that specific to style, but there are guidelines in the Bru’nwater knowledge page.
I’ll take a peek.
Brun water is a bit over my head, though I get some of the info. Its primarily dealing with mash and sparge pH. I’m looking more so for final beer pH info.
Actually I just found an old thread with some good info from a few guys that know a little about beer.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=4875.0
I know im talking to myself here, but its cool. My head hurts from reading brewing pH stuff all day. I don’t think I learned much, other than maybe the effects, buffering is it? of malt bills and residual alkalinity. Maybe thats it… but I have all of my recipies converted over to 10% phosphoric instead of 88% lactic. I also noticed what a huge difference there is between a typical grain bill with distilled vs my well water. The same bill in my well water might need 25ml of phosphoric in the mash, where with distilled it might not need any. Is that due to the residual alcalinity? Seems like it.
Anyway, im looking forward to exploring this new territory.
keep playing with it… look at the actual alkalinity and the actual acid needed to bring your standard grain bills down to between 5.2-5.6. Phosphoric is fine. I find that I need far less lactic and haven’t hit a taste threshold yet. Look at your boil pH (at room temperature) and just track where it naturally goes (I test my hydro samples). So for example, I see 0.2-0.3 units drop in the boil kettle (usually). So if I am targeting a mash pH of 5.4, I am looking for 5.1 in the kettle which ensures really nice hot break formation. (These you have a lot of control over).
The distilled water should have, by definition, low to no alkalinity. So the tiniest acid addition will have a relatively large impact. With your well water, the alkalinity is naturally higher so it takes far more acid to neutralize that alkalinity (along with the mash) to achieve a reasonable mash pH estimate. Think of alkalinity or buffering the ability to resist a change from the introduction of an acid. It’s the comic book sand kicking advert for a muscle program… the weakling has low alkalinity compared to the muscle bound jock. In the presence of a strong a strong adversary (acid) the jock is most likely going to last a lot longer than the weakling.
Finally, look at the fermentation pH, where the yeast naturally produce acid; the pH will drop in the lag phase long before any krausen shows. The nominal levels mentioned in the previous thread are pretty close to my records. When preparing a finished beer for competition, I almost always sit with a dropper and evaluate adding some acidity - especially with my saisons or sour beers. That said - I don’t find that I like my saisons always at 3.9 or 4.0… really depends on the grain bill or yeast character I am after. Maltier beers seem to be richer at a higher finished pH. Wild beers can be extremely low.
Awesome Matt. I think I have my head wrapped around the meat of this, I just need experience with my recipes. Cool stuff.
First real use of Matt’s pH meter today. Mashed in my blonde sour, 17lbs of GW Pils in 6.75 gal well water, gypsum and CaCl, and phosphoric per Brewer’s Friend. At about 5 minutes of stiring I pulled a sample and chilled to 70F. 5.2 pH! Woo hoo!
Thanks Matt!
Edit: I cut the suggested phosphoric for the sparge in half because it seemed like a lot. 20ml vs 40ml of 10%, and my sparge ph was 5.2 again! Loving my new meter!