Acid additions to Sparge Water??

[MelonHeads]

Hi All -

I've been trying to figure out why I have such a low efficiency on my AG brewing when I do fly sparge - consistently in the 60's. I was then re-reading Kal's brewday at http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ and noticed that he also checks PH of the sparge water and adjusts when needed.

My sparge water of course, is around 7 (drinking water), so I put a couple ml of acid to bring down to 5.2 - 5.5 and FINALLY ended up with 75% mash efficiency.

Do many of you look at Sparge PH?

 

[triethylborane]

I do not check sparge pH. Your efficiency is in the "60's" and now hitting 75% . . . I dunno If I would chalk that up to adjusting sparge pH. If your efficiency is 68,69, maybe so, but 61, 63, I wouldn't say that is sparge pH.

 

[Yooper]

Sparge pH is crucial, but not so much for efficiency. It has to do with the extraction of tannins. Once the pH rises above 6 and the gravity is lowered during the sparge, tannin extraction can be a big problem. Acidfying your sparge water fixes that issue, and generally results in a much improved flavor in the final beer, particularly light colored beers.

Maybe something else is helping your efficiency- like a slower sparge, or something that fixed any channeling, or something as simple as a larger grain bill so there was more sparge water.