Mash pH question

If I have roughly 5.0 pH, will adding 5.2 pH stabilizer help or hurt my water? Will it raise my water to 5.2 or do nothing?

elgee said:

If I have roughly 5.0 pH, will adding 5.2 pH stabilizer help or hurt my water? Will it raise my water to 5.2 or do nothing?

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You may have better luck in a different subset of this forum there is a section that basically talks only about water chemistry.

But in order to assess your situation we need to know your full profile and not just ph.

I also hear but do not know from experience that that stabilizer is crap.

Finally the water chemistry primer on this forum is a good place to start if you are just getting started looking at your all grain water profile.

Take all this with a grain of salt as there are people much smarter than me on these boards. Good luck!

I use it and get great results with a PH of 5 it may not be worth it. Remember the ole time brewers did not have any of this stuff. Yet we try and clone those old timey beers!!!:rockin:

Is your actual water pH 5 or is the mash pH 5


Most grain bills will drop the pH to a desirable level in the 5.2-5.8 range.

If you are starting with. PH of 5 then your grain bill may drop the pH into the 4s which would be too low and you may need to add something to the water to get it up to proper levels.

Visit the water chemistry-brew science thread or go to a water tool like bruin,water or ez water calculator - do you have a water report to start with?

5.2 is a buffer and IMO its really pretty useless!