Apologies, first, as I suspect this might have been asked once or ten thousand times before - I am not finding it. I finally moved from strips to a meter (http://www.myronl.com/products/ultrapen_pt2.htm) which I have calibrated and verified against the buffer solutions, etc. I am about four brews in using the meter and my PH is consistently low from ez-water's predictions. This morning, for example, predicted: 5.59; actual (20 mins into mash): 5.3. It always appeared low with the strips too, of course, but I did not trust them.
I always start with RO water and build according to style (loosely) and to get my mash PH into the suggested range.
My beers come out good, and I am not worried about a PH in the neighborhood of 5.3 (although I am usually a bit lower), but would love to be able to more accurately predict my mash PH. Any low-hanging-fruit suggestions for someone who typically finds the more in-depth water chemistry stuff a bit hard to grasp but would nonetheless like to predict/control PH with a bit more accuracy?
I always start with RO water and build according to style (loosely) and to get my mash PH into the suggested range.
My beers come out good, and I am not worried about a PH in the neighborhood of 5.3 (although I am usually a bit lower), but would love to be able to more accurately predict my mash PH. Any low-hanging-fruit suggestions for someone who typically finds the more in-depth water chemistry stuff a bit hard to grasp but would nonetheless like to predict/control PH with a bit more accuracy?