Adjusting ph

I brewed my first AG batch a few weeks ago and I'm trying to dial in my ph. I treated all my water together, mash and sparge. Should I seperate these treatments? If so what is the most common best practice for treating water? Is it after dough in or prior to? Are the ph sticks good enough to get me in the ballpark or should I turn to something else? Finally is 5.2 stabilizer worth a try? I did use ezwater for my first batch and they recommended 3 ml of lactic acid given my grain profile.

Amff said:

I brewed my first AG batch a few weeks ago and I'm trying to dial in my ph. I treated all my water together, mash and sparge. Should I seperate these treatments?

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It is usually easiest to treat all the water together but if you don't have an 'HLT' large enough to hold the entire volume required for a brew you may have no choice but to treat them separately. There may also be circumstances in which you want to add alakli to the the mash water but not the sparge water. Separatae treatment would be required in such cases.

Amff said:

If so what is the most common best practice for treating water?

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There are several common practices. There is a survey going on right now which as of the time of writing this indicates that over half of brewers use RO water and either build up the ion profiles they want by adding salts or obtain the ion profiles they seek by diluting tap water with RO. There are some general guidelines for the use of RO water in the Primer in the Stickies.

Amff said:

Is it after dough in or prior to?

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Water treatment is done to the water. It is good practice to check the pH of the mash and if it is out of whack corrective treatment (the addition of acid or alkali, obviously must be applied to the mash. With experience this shouldn't be necessary.

Amff said:

Are the ph sticks good enough to get me in the ballpark or should I turn to something else?

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No. A decent pH meter is required. I suppose the strips are better than nothing but be aware that they tend to read 0.3 pH low.

Amff said:

Finally is 5.2 stabilizer worth a try?

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No.