Mash ph

[buntung483]

I just started a brew and thought I'd try playing with my water. I'm doin an American ipa and using strips have a ph around 6 maybe 7. I bought calcium sulfate as lhbs recommended but now I'm not sure when or how to add. Any one able to help while my water heats up

 

[mblanks2]

Not nearly enough information. If water chemistry is a concern, then get a Ward Labs report and use Bruin Water spreadsheet to adjust your water to the desired profile.

 

[buntung483]

I filter my water. Not just a case of put some gypsum in?

 

[RoadKing]

You can't just blindly add salts to your water. For example...you want to add gypsum, gypsum adds sulfate. maybe your water is already loaded with sulfate
= ruined beer. Maybe go down to the brew science and poke around there awhile.

 

[buntung483]

Ok cheers. Back to researching then. Water definately takes a bit to understand, I've found when reading about it it can start blurring over. Just need to push through and take it in

Cheers

 

[RM-MN]

When you use the pH strips, are you measuring the pH of the water or of the mash? The water pH doesn't matter too much but the mash pH does. If your water pH is a little high, the addition of the grains is usually enough to bring that pH down but that will depend on what is in your water.

 

[eric19312]

Since you already started, I would say you can probably add a teaspoon of gypsum to either your mash or boil if you already mashed and improve an ipa.

After today's brew if you want to work on dialing in.your water you should get a water report - either ward labs or one provided by your water authority (my water company provides an excellent report, much better than others I've seen, so I haven't bothered with ward labs. Then with your report in hand you will need to study up. In addition to Bru'n water and the brewing science forum here on HBT, Brewer's Friend has two online calculators that are quite interesting to use.