I thought I would take the next step in my brewing education by reading books on water quality and working to adjust my water PH (I know there are other factors but I’m focusing on PH first). I bought some Precision Labs strips the other day at my LHBS and took several readings at the 5-7 minute mark during the mash by pouring a small amount of the wort into a cup and quickly cooling to room temp. I came up with 3 pretty different readings making me think the strips aren’t all that accurate.
Is there a better way to take readings other than strips?
I think the better way is to get a water test and find out the mineral content of your water. You can predict mash pH based on that. Testing pH is more like step 2.
If the water composition is relatively constant, a water test and utilizing a decent water calculator will get most brewers 90 + percent of the way to what you can achieve with a pH meter. Meters are generally more accurate than any strips, but they have more upkeep.
If you do take the plunge and buy a ph meter…don’t skimp. Most brewers I know, have 2 - 3 cheaper models they purchased before buying a more expensive model.
I wonder if your readings changed based on temperature fluctuations across your three readings. In a small vessel it’s easy to have wider temperature fluctuations, especially if you used your freezer to cool it quickly, and that could affect how accurate your three readings could have been.
The thing that drove me nuts about pH strips is that for the ones I got, the color is based shades of yellow to dark brown, with the 5.1 to 5.5 range being several light to medium brown shades. Guess how well that works for dark beers? >:(
pH meters…I used to use field pH meters when I was a young environmental consultant 25 years ago sampling monitoring wells. Keeping them calibrated was a royal pain. Unless they got better, don’t waste your time. +1 to Martin’s advice.
I definitely think the temperature irregularity was an issue and it could have also been that as time went by my mash itself was changing in PH.
I did get a water report (sent to Ward Labs) which came back and I tried to use the calculators online to hlep me estimate what water adjustments needed to happen, this is the trial and error phase I think with my equipment and process.
I’ll definitely be looking into a quality PH meter, thanks all!
I really like http://www.brewersfriend.com/ water calculators. The basic allows you to enter your own water values and calculate adjustments to target certain profiles. Advanced lets you enter grist and acid adjustments to calculate mash pH. They really make adjusting pretty easy and a good pH meter will let you double check that the calculations are correct.
I bought a pH meter last yr and used it three times. The readings I got were right on with what Bru’n Water predicted, so I ended up selling the pH meter.
Funny story on selling it is that I listed the pH meter on CL. The first response I got wanted to trade some “top shelf mmj.” I had to google mmj to confirm what I thought it was. I guess this is expected w/ the new laws here in CO. I went w/ the guy that paid in cash.
+1 to Bru’nWater. If you’re careful to enter the correct grist, water volumes and use RO, it seems to predict pH very accurately. If I were to ever feel I needed it I’d buy a meter I suppose, but I’m a lot of batches in on Bru’nWater and it works consistently well. Really pleased.
Every now bad then I have a mash that is a little off, so I have to adjust. That could be grist variation or base RO water variation. I check the mash pH, and have started measuring kettle pH. I have to get with it and measure the finished beer pH someday