When does mash reach it's final pH?

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AndyRN

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How often do you folks check pH of your mash and at what point do see no more change in the pH?
 
So I checked my mash after the 60 minute time and my pH was 5.83. This is the first batch I have ever checked pH on. I had some of that 5.2 pH stabilizer that I put in the strike water prior to mash. When I got the 5.83 I added 1 tsp of gypsum which brought it down to 5.63. I know this addition didn't do much but I wanted to see what happened. Any idea on what I should do in future batches to hit my target pH.

P.S. the recipe is a DFH 60 clone.
 
Do you use Bru'n water or other software? That will give you a good prediction if where your pH will wind up and it will tell you how much acid you need to add. (I take it you didn't add any acid to this one?)

The other thing is to ditch the 5.2 stabilizer. It's useless.
 
Do you use Bru'n water or other software? That will give you a good prediction if where your pH will wind up and it will tell you how much acid you need to add. (I take it you didn't add any acid to this one?)

The other thing is to ditch the 5.2 stabilizer. It's useless.

There was mixed reviews on it so I thought I would give it a go. No I did not use any software to calculate water chemistry.

What do most people like to use to lower pH? Acidulated malts, gypsum,...
 
Gypsum,CaCl is what I use. More CaCl for a malty beer and Gypsum with a tiny bit of CaCl for Pale Ales.

I used to use Acidulated malt, but I found it easier to use Lactic Acid if I need to adjust the mash.
 
Check out the sticky in the all-grain section.

Common water chemistry errors.

pH 5.2 is worthless and listed there as a common pitfall, one which I fell victim to.

Using a good piece of software (I use Bru'n Water) calculate the correct minerals to adjust your water mineral profile to a desired target. You need to know what's in the water to start with.

Then use acid or base to adjust your mash pH. This will depend mostly on the alkalinity of your water, type of grains being mashed and the thickness of the mash.

Acid in the form of 88% lactic acid or acid malt is used to lower pH.

Without a good pH meter use the Bru'n water predicted amounts. They are close. pH strips or a crappy meter or a poorly calibrated good meter are likely to give you misleading data. Better no data than wrong data.

If you have a well calibrated good meter you can measure the actual mash pH 20-30 mins into the process from a small sample.

Compare the true mash pH (at room temp) with the predicted mash pH from the software and adjust future mash acid additions accordingly.

A big no-no is trying to adjust mash pH with proven worthless chemicals like pH 5.2. Similarly using mineral additions to adjust pH are extremely ineffective and amounts exceeding a taste threshold would likely be needed to get the targeted adjustment in pH. Acid (almost always) or base is the right tool for the job.

Bru'n water is a great tool. Free and easy to use. Lots of great water chemistry information in it to boot.

If you really want to tackle water chemistry you need

  • a water report or use RO water as a first step.
  • an accurate and stable pH meter which is calibrated correctly at 2 points prior to a mash.
  • to be a mathematical whizz or know how to use a simple online tool.

A good pH meter with required solutions (storage soln. not needed for this meter) DSC02421.jpg
 
If you really want to get a handle on water chemistry, read Palmer's "Water." It revolutionized (and greatly improved) my brewing.
 
So I checked my mash after the 60 minute time and my pH was 5.83. This is the first batch I have ever checked pH on. I had some of that 5.2 pH stabilizer that I put in the strike water prior to mash.

Interesting result. A pH of about 5.8 is right where that product will buffer the mash pH to. Glad to see that science still works.

It's too bad that product doesn't!
 
Interesting result. A pH of about 5.8 is right where that product will buffer the mash pH to. Glad to see that science still works.

It's too bad that product doesn't!

well that's great. :D I do have a good meter that reads out to .02 and I calibrated it while I was heating my strike water. The problem with Bru'n software is getting my water profile.

My efficiency on this batch was actually worse then previous batches. It went down to 63%. I should have just used the gypsum and seen how it ended.
 
well that's great. :D I do have a good meter that reads out to .02 and I calibrated it while I was heating my strike water. The problem with Bru'n software is getting my water profile.

My efficiency on this batch was actually worse then previous batches. It went down to 63%. I should have just used the gypsum and seen how it ended.

Water profile is easy just use www.wardlab.com If that's not an option you can always us RO/Distilled water and build it backup.
 
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