Hi Water PH value

[Westeinder Brouwerij]

hi all, im new to brewing and I’ve noticed i’ve got a high local water PH of 6,1 ish.
Now i’ve bought some calcium sulphate to bring it down, but when i’ve done some test samples it did nothing?
What im I doing wrong or im i just daft?
Btw im also using ph papers from 5,2 ~ 6,8

Thanks all

 

[ESBrewer]

Where and how exactly you measure the pH? Calcium will mostly change the mash pH by interacting with the compounds found in malts. As a brewer you will be interested in the mash / sparge water pH, the pH of the plain water is not very interesting because it is going to change a lot when you add malt.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

I would be very surprised if your source water is pH 6.1, that is really low. Municipal water supplies generally ensure that the water pH is over 7 to prevent corrosion of distribution pipes.

As mentioned above, the source water pH is really not important. The alkalinity of the water is what is important and is what will drive your mash pH after you combine the water and grist.

I would recommend either sending a sample of the water out to a lab for analysis, or see if you can contact someone within your municipality that has access to the water analysis report. (assuming you are on city water, not a well)

 

[Westeinder Brouwerij]

Thanks

Thats where i’m going wrong I feel.
As I was just testing if I was doing it ok by adding it to water, to see if I could bring down the PH value, which it didnt.
Wanted to prepare myself before I brew my second batch of beer and get stuck with a higher than wanted PH level in my mash

 

[Westeinder Brouwerij]

It was also the sparge water i was testing.

Where and how exactly you measure the pH? Calcium will mostly change the mash pH by interacting with the compounds found in malts. As a brewer you will be interested in the mash / sparge water pH, the pH of the plain water is not very interesting because it is going to change a lot when you add malt.

t

 

[BrewerBrad82]

Check out this thread, lots of good info in here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/a-brewing-water-chemistry-primer.198460/

 

[Westeinder Brouwerij]

Thanks

 

[ESBrewer]

Some links
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/08/24/brewing-water-hard-or-soft/

Like BrewerBrad wrote, it would help if you can find a water quality report from your local water supply (could be somewhere in the web) that lists the ions and alkalinity of water. After that we and/or programs can suggest how much to add calcium. If you measured the pH of your mash (with malts) in your first batch and it's too high ( >5.6) you may add a little bit of gypsum and it should go down a bit. Don't put too much without knowing the local water profile. Malt will always lower the pH, especially if you have crystal malts or roasted malts in the grain bill. If the alkalinity of water is very high, this is going to counteract the effect of malts to a degree. In the sparge water, it may be useful to remove some alkalinity by adding a suitable acid (calcium is less effective during the sparge than in the mash). You can learn more from the links.