Paper on beer stability and other best practices

I stumbled upon this paper while trying to look into ways to make a more stable final product: http://www.draymans.com/articles/arts/05.html.

There are a few things that I find interesting and go against what I've read/learned, but not experimented with.

In the section that talks about "Factors affecting haze formation" he mentions Mash pH. He states to take a hot sample and that it should be between 5.3-5.4. Corrected for temperature it is around 5.1-5.2 I believe.

He then talks about sparging and not to go over 5.5 (I'd heard 6.0 in the past).

He also recommends at least a 70 minute boil.

Finally he suggests using Irish Moss for the last 30 minutes of the boil.

This all goes against what I've seen or was recommended. What is the communities take of the validity of this paper?

Opinions are like a$$holes, everyone's got them.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Home Brew mobile app

butterpants said:

Opinions are like a$$holes, everyone's got them.

Click to expand...

True, but he does quote four sources so I was wondering what the scientific merit of his opinion might be.

Those recommendations are not that far from current recommendations. Do recognize that the information presented on that website is over a decade old and is apparently formulated from sources that are over 15 years old. The state of the art does march forward.

With that said, the recommendations in the article are safe and will produce decent beer. They MIGHT be a little lower than pH values we may recommend today, but not far off.

PS: that low mash pH is probably preferred in the typical light lager and malt focused beer brewing. Its only in the hoppier and roastier styles that a brewer might want to increase the pH slightly.

brewmeister13 said:

In the section that talks about "Factors affecting haze formation" he mentions Mash pH. He states to take a hot sample and that it should be between 5.3-5.4. Corrected for temperature it is around 5.1-5.2 I believe.

Click to expand...

First off, the advice to make the measurement at mash temperature is bad because nobody else does this (well, actually, if this guy is doing it there are, presumably others that are doing it too) and second, because of the stress on the electrode, which he refers to.

Second, pH at room temperature is is higher than at mash temperature so his 5.3 - 5.4 would translate to some higher value depending on what his mash temperature is. This is another disadvantage of stating it at mash temperature - you have to say what mash temperature is. Assuming that it is, in this case, 150 then the pH's would be 0.24 higher than that at room temp or 5.54 - 5.64. He is right that you wouldn't want to be higher than that. My personal opinion, is 5.4 - 5.6 (at room temp) but that is just my opinion to which I am entitled as I have the requisite anatomical feature.