Five Star 5.2 pH stabilizer

What is this stuff? I have seen it mentioned on here numerous times and have always kinda wondered what it is. Does it just make every mash the right ph? If so how does it do this? As a new AG brewer this stuff could be gold!

It is a pH buffer. Google pH buffers or chemical buffers ti see how it works.
It doesn't work with every mash, but will work for most masheswhere the pH is too high without some sort of corrective action.

-a.

Yes it is a buffer. It DOES NOT matter if your pH is lower or higher than 5.2, the buffer will bring the pH to 5.2 and hold it there unless you exceed the capacity of the buffer. That is what buffers do, lock in the pH. They can either RAISE or LOWER the pH to bring it to the desired level - it works both ways. It will work with ANY mash (assuming you want a pH of 5.2), you may have to adjust how much you add though. The harder your water and the higher your residual alkalinity, the more you'll have to add. In the recomended rates it will not affect flavor.

If you want to know the details, the buffers provides counter-ions that offset extra H+ ions in the solution that would lower the pH, or the buffer can provide the solution with H+ ions to counter act any compound that might remove H+ ions and raise the pH. In the lab we use the term molarity (M) as a measure of capacity. A 100 mM (milli Molar) buffer has 10 times the buffering capacity of a 10 mM buffer. You can add 100 ml of 90 mM HCl (hyrdochloric acid) to 100 ml of a 100 mM buffer at pH 7 and the pH will remain at 7. Add 100 ml of 110 mM HCl and you've exceeded the buffer capacity and the pH will drop.

I was worried about pH my first couple of AG brews, but I am going with what John Palmer said on basicbrewing radio, I've never had a pH problem in a mash, unless your water is super weird (i.e. not from a city supply, tastes bad, etc) you really don't need to worry. I took some pH strips home from the lab I work in, and checked the first few mashes I did, the grains naturally buffer your mash and mine were always spot on at 5.2ish.

Wow, this is an old post but relevant to what I was pondering. Always good stuff on this site. My mashes seem to be on target, I was more concerned about the sparge water.

Works great for brewers that don't check mash pH. Doesn't work at all for brewers that do check mash pH. Adds a nice dose of sodium to the wort too.

There are better ways to get your mash and sparge pH's into the proper range than to use this stuff.

mabrungard said:

There are better ways to get your mash and sparge pH's into the proper range than to use this stuff.

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Can you elaborate??

RandyAB said:

Can you elaborate??

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I'm not going to speak for mabrungard but my suggestion would be to obtain a water report, either from your local water source or by sending a sample off to a lab, and plug the numbers into a spreadsheet like EZ Water Calculator. Then it's a simple matter of entering your beer recipe and tweaking the lactic acid, acidulated malt, etc. values until you dial in your desired pH. EasyPeasy. And at this point it's super easy to adjust your chloride and sulfate levels too, if that's something you're interested in.

RandyAB said:

Can you elaborate??

Click to expand...

I'm not going to speak for mabrungard but my suggestion would be to obtain a water report, either from your local water source or by sending a sample off to a lab, and plug the info into a spreadsheet like EZ Water Calculator. Then it's a simple matter of entering your beer recipe and tweaking the lactic acid or acidulated malt value (assuming you want to drop your pH) until you dial in the pH you want. EasyPeasy. And at this point it's super easy to adjust your chloride and sulfate levels too, if that's something you might want to do.

jwalker1140 said:

I'm not going to speak for mabrungard but my suggestion would be to obtain a water report, either from your local water source or by sending a sample off to a lab, and plug the numbers into a spreadsheet like EZ Water Calculator. Then it's a simple matter of entering your beer recipe and tweaking the lactic acid, acidulated malt, etc. values until you dial in your desired pH. EasyPeasy. And at this point it's super easy to adjust your chloride and sulfate levels too, if that's something you're interested in.

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You say easypeasy, to me putting a teaspoon of something into my water is Easy peasy...not getting lab water reports and buying chemicals to tweak my water profile lol

FuzzeWuzze said:

You say easypeasy, to me putting a teaspoon of something into my water is Easy peasy...not getting lab water reports and buying chemicals to tweak my water profile lol

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And not going to the store to buy 5.2 pH stabilizer is even easier peasier. And just sticking with extract rather than going all grain is easier peasier still. And just going to the store to buy beer rather than make it is easiest peasiest of all.

My point is that learning about your water and how to make adjustments to it really isn't that complicated. Once you do this, you'll be able to deal with any water situation, including those that 5.2 pH stabilizer may not be able to fix.

Btw, my local water municipality puts my water numbers up on their website. Grabbing the numbers and plugging them into the free EZ spreadsheet was pretty easy. YMMV.

I've read a number of complaints from people saying it makes the beer taste unusually salty.


Rev.

I'm no AG expert and use city water. I've tried recipes with and without the stabilizer. Used it when I first started AG due to my being nervous about getting everything just right. After 40-50 batches I find that it didn't make any noticible difference in what the end product turned out to be. Ran out of it and am not planning on buying any more.

tmcmaster007 said:

I'm no AG expert and use city water. I've tried recipes with and without the stabilizer. Used it when I first started AG due to my being nervous about getting everything just right. After 40-50 batches I find that it didn't make any noticible difference in what the end product turned out to be. Ran out of it and am not planning on buying any more.

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This was my thought process exactly. I use it because I bought it for the reasons tmcmaster007 gives. Better use it, I bought it. I get my water reports from the city and do some adjustments but also add the buffer. I have no sound rationale for its usage. Can it have a detrimental effect when used correctly?

I,m removing chlorine, chloramine and adding Ca ++