water pH

Brewing Processes
1

Hello Folks,

Water is driving me nuts.  The pH out of my tap is 6.7.  I use lactic acid to bring it down to 5.4 in my strike water.  When I check the mash, it is 4.7.  Wort is the same.  Next time, I left the strike water at 6.7, and the mash was still 4.7.  How can I get the mash and wort to the 5.4 range?

Thank you!

Prestomeco

2

What kind of beer are you trying to make? If there are lots of dark malts you may need to raise the pH with sodium bicarbonate.

3

Hello.  Primarily pales, browns, ambers, reds, some stouts and porters, seldom IPAs.  I’ll try the sodium bicarbonate, thanks.

4

It’s always going to be recipe dependent. Darker beers will tend to have lower pH while lighter beers will tend to have higher. Sodium Bicarb probably won’t help, say, a pils but would a porter. Remember it isn’t really the pH of the water that is important it is the pH of your mash.

This is a good place to start: http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/understanding-the-mash-ph/using-salts-for-brewing-water-adjustment

5

Thank you.

6

How are you measurjng it?  It seems unlikely it would be 4.7 both with and without acid additions.

7

There are a variety of spreadsheets and software packages available that will help with pH calculations. I use BeerSmith.  As majorvices said, it’s recipe dependent.  So, knowing the makeup of your water source along with the exact grain bill will determine the additives needed to give you the necessary 5.2 to 5.8 pH of the mash.

8

If you’re adjusting your water before the mash, then there’s a misunderstanding.  You need to adjust your water based on your mash pH, not your water pH.

9

This!

An all grain grist mashed in 5.4 pH water would have to consist exclusively of a mix of 80-140L caramel/crystal and 300-550L roasted malts in order to have the potential to mash at pH 4.7.

10

Agree 100% but he didn’t ever mention if these were 2 different recipes so the pH could just be a coincidence. If the meter is not calibrated correctly it won’t matter what reading you get. But if the one he used lactic in was a pale ale and the other one he didn’t was a stout then the reading could very well be what he got.