Mash pH for American Stout Troubles

Brewing an American stout on Friday and I used the Ez water calculator, advanced Brewers Friend water calculator and Bru'n'water and all three gave me a different mash pH.

Ez water: 5.57

Brewers Friend: 5.59

Bru'n'water: 5.22

This is without any mineral additions and using RO water.

5.5kg Grist:

59% 2-Row

20% Pale Ale malt

5% C15

5% F. Barley

5% R. Barley

3% Carafa Special 2

3% Special Roast

Targeting the black balanced water profile from Bru'n'water

I use the advanced Brewers Friend water calculator mostly but for some reason wanted to test the pH against other calculators and got three different results.

Not sure how to proceed.

Thanks

BrewJays said:

Not sure how to proceed.

Click to expand...

I personally would proceed by mashing in and checking the pH, then adjusting from there. Have a little bit of lactic acid and baking soda on hand to adjust.

I can't trust any of the calculators since my tap water changes season to season. I still use them to calculate mineral additions and get a rough idea of the pH, though.

One of the recent Brulosophy articles did a mash at 4.45 and 5.33. Participants could not reliably tell them apart. Interestingly, the final pH of the beers came in very similar (4.14 vs 4.17).

http://brulosophy.com/2017/01/30/wa...he-impact-of-low-mash-ph-exbeeriment-results/

I don't have a pH meter, so I can't check. I just trust whichever calculator I use (usually the advanced brewers friend calculator) that it will be right.

I actually read this article, must have forgotten. Huge Brulosophy fan.

With minerals added (assuming no bicarb in the mix) the pH will come down a bit for all 3 calculators.

With the Brulosophy experiment showing that even extremely low mash pH (4.45) is not likely to hurt it, I agree that you should just go ahead and brew it. The likelihood of going below pH 5.0 seems to be nill. If it comes out fine (or not), and you report your results, all of us will learn a bunch from it.

I believe that perhaps circa 50 years ago 5.0 mash pH was actually the target for many (most?) of the major breweries (but word has it that for the most part this was required due to a specific characteristic of the prevailing malts back then). Regardless, beta and alpha amalyse were then just as they are now.

For what it's worth, pH itself was an unknown concept until 1909, and pH meters didn't even exist until 1934. So what was happening before then with regard to mash pH was a total mystery to all (albeit that color change titrant indicators likely existed), yet over the pre-pH awareness centuries plenty of great beer was being produced.

BrewJays said:

Brewing an American stout on Friday and I used the Ez water calculator, advanced Brewers Friend water calculator and Bru'n'water and all three gave me a different mash pH.

Ez water: 5.57

Brewers Friend: 5.59

Bru'n'water: 5.22

Click to expand...

The first two estimates are reasonable (I get 5.52) but the third is not. I would check your data entries for Bru'n. It can be off by as much as that but usually when the discrepancy is that large it is a headset error that has caused it.

As for how to proceed: people's experiences have shown that a grist like yours should produce a mash pH of about 5.5 so I would just go ahead and brew. It's always nice to have a couple mEq/L calcium and chloride in a beer so I'd add that (about 2 grams CaCl2.0H2O). This will drop the estimated pH from 5.52 to 5.50 which is not, of course, an appreciable drop. I think you can be pretty confident that you will be around 5.5 but it is always best to take a pH measurement.

Awesome guys. I really appreciate all the help. When the beers cold and carbed I'll report back.

Thanks!