left field brewer

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I've seen a couple of conflicting opinions about whether pH should be adjusted before dough-in. The pH of local city water is about or above 9 and has a fair amount of alkalinity to it. A couple of people at respectable supply stores(one is a brewery too) , said that reducing pH prior to dough-in to under 7 will help reduce the hop harshness especially in young beers. Has anyone else heard this? The two people seemed pretty damn sure it improved their homebrew.Anybody experienced brewing with pretty high pH? I know that much of that will mellow in time but seriously, if I can have smoother beers faster just by a little addition, of course I'd do it.

Brew-boy

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Ph of the mash should be adjusted first. Then you should use acid to bring your strike water down to a Ph of around 6.

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Blender

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Your water is pretty high at Ph 9. Why not try some 5.2 stabilizer in your next batch and see if it makes a taste difference.
http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/tech/fivetwo.pdf

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BigEd

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Do not confuse your water pH with the pH of the mash. It is not the pH of the brewing water but it's residual alkalinity that is important. This factor and the activity of the mash will determine the pH level reached and will let you know what additions you may need to reach the optimum mash pH range. Get a water report that shows the important brewing ions and the bicarbonate/alkalinity level of the water. You can check out the link below for a start on some water info.

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebr ... ater3.html

desertbronze

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More info from John Palmer:

http://www.beertown.org/events/hbc/presentations/JPPresentation.pdf

Read through this presentation - Palmer notes that the mash pH is the important consideration - water pH is not as important.

Thalon

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Wow those are great links, thanks! I like Palmer's nomographs, though they're easiest used when printed out. Any idea where we can find some nomographs without the example data on them, blank forms we can print out and use ourselves?

FlyGuy

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Yep, try here:
http://www.howtobrew.com/images/f83.pdf

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Thalon

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MMMMMMM Thank you!!!!

Got Trub?

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You can also calculate it if you have your water analysis. The equation is:

Mash pH = 5.8 + (0.028*((CaCO3*0.056) - (Ca++ * 0.04) - (Mg+*0.033))) - (%dark malt)/40

5.8 is pH of distilled water (do not substitue your water pH)
Concentrations are in ppm
The pH change by dark malt is an approximation based on results published in Ray Daniels book

Again to re-iterate what has been posted above it is not your waters pH that dictates your mash pH but rather the constituents in your water and the amount of dark grain in your mash. As you can see from the equation your waters pH is not a component.

In terms of hop harshness your water definitely will affect that. It is for that reason that Burton on Trent is famous for its IPA's. It's their water.

ajf

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Minor correction. 5.8 is the typical pH of a mash containing only pale malt made with distilled water.

-a.