Ph level wont come down

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Westeinder Brouwerij

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hi all

Im struggling here, brewing a triple right now but I cant get the mash PH to go down below 6.
I’ve added 16g of calcium sulphate but it does nothing? Im trying to get it to 5,3 ish.
What should I do?
 
Are you measuring pH at mash or room temp? How soon after adding the 16g of calcium sulfate did you retake pH? I would wait 10 minutes at least to give it time to work. Other option is adding some lactic or phosphoric acid. Post your recipe, it will help everyone pinpoint why you are too high.
 
I just take a drop straight from the mash tub and dab it on my PH paper.
Water in my area has a 8,1Ph, this mash has come down to low 6, but it wont move to 5,3.
Its my second attempt at grain brewing.
 
You will be better off with a pH meter. The cheap pH strips are not very reliable, the lab quality ones are slightly better, but a pH meter is the only way to really judge accurately. The strips have a +- of something like 0.4...so you could be at 5.6 pH.
 
I think I’ve been sold duff PH papers. Cooled the wort down to 31c and still not a bit of difference. Really cant understand why I cant get this PH value down in both batches i’ve made
 
Unfortunately, pH paper is notoriously known to be highly inaccurate. Also, adding minerals alone is not a very reliable (or recommended) method of lowering mash pH. Plus you don't want to add so many minerals that your beer eventually tastes minerally. The far better method is to acidify the strike water in advance based upon the advice of a mash pH adjusting spreadsheet. And then measure a (cooled to room temperature) sample of the wort for pH at about 10-15 minutes into the mash with the aid of a freshly calibrated pH meter.

As an aside, it is generally better to split your mineralization between calcium sulfate and calcium chloride in order to achieve balance, or if more maltiness is desired, to go heavier on calcium chloride and lighter on calcium sulfate. Or if a sort of dryness and a hop forward taste with less maltiness is desired (such as for an IPA), go heavier on calcium sulfate and lighter on calcium chloride.
 
Hello

So how do you acidify the strike water?

My water from the tap has a PH of 8,1 so my water board informed me.
I have so far pre boiled my strike water so I dont calc up my Braumeister.

How do i make better water to begin with?
 
There is little relevance to ones source water pH, since the waters buffering capacity (its ability to resist changes in pH) is nill with respect to the vastly much greater buffering capacity of the recipes grist (its various malts and unmalted grains).

If you are using tap water, the first step is to get a lab analysis of it if you are on a well, or to contact your local water company and ask for their analysis if you are on municipal water. You want to know your waters mg/L (ppm) of specifically these ions: Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, and SO4. Also you will critically need to know your waters mg/L (ppm) of alkalinity (reported as CaCO3), or alternately its mg/L (ppm) bicarbonate.

Find a spreadsheet that computes mash pH and assists in its adjustment (such as mine, and yes, I am biased, but at least it is both complete and free), or anyone else's program, and on the water page enter your source waters analyticals and alkalinity (some request bicarbonate here). Also tell the program how much of your water (as a percentage) will be coming from your analyzed source, and how much will be blended in from another source (fully optional, only if desired, with typical alternative sources being RO or distilled). Then on the main page enter your recipes individual malts, and their respective colors, and their malt "class", and lastly add in your desired minerals. Also (for my software at least) enter a target mash pH (with 5.4 being the most common target here). The program will then guide you as to how much acid (phosphoric or lactic) or base (baking soda) to add to "nominally" (+/-, within reason) hit the mash pH target.

But beware that any and all of such mash pH guidance software programs are only so reliable, and are not at all to be considered valid enough to be an outright replacement for actual pH measurement during the mash.
 
In your case an analysis of the post boiled water will be required, as boiling appreciably lowers alkalinity (bicarb) and also somewhat (to greatly) depletes Ca and Mg concentrations. Or alternately you can build water from RO or distilled, either of which will contain no (appreciable) alkalinity, and also contain no minerals. Therefore minerals must be added. Calcium Chloride, Calcium Sulfate, Magnesium Sulfate, and salt (NaCl) being common additions here. No real need for magnesium. Little to no need for salt. That leaves CaCl2 and CaSO4 as the main minerals for adjustment. You generally want to have at least 50 to perhaps 100 ppm (mg/L) of Ca, and also between 50 and 100 ppm of Cl and/or SO4.
 
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This is my local water information
 

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You would acidify with Phosphoric, Hydrochloric or Lactic acid. I would not acidify strike water, only sparge water. If your grain bill does not lower the pH enough (very light colored grist), then I would adjust your grain bill with acidulated malt. Use an online water calculator or Bru n' Water, something to do the math for you.
 
I forgot about acidulated malt, which is an acid option with any of such software. Mine is at the web link below.
 
My apology, but I'm not permitted to direct link it by forum rules. It's there though. Unless I'm the only one who can see it. ???

Try a search engine and enter "Mash Made Easy" (including the quotes)
 
My apology, but I'm not permitted to direct link it by forum rules. It's there though. Unless I'm the only one who can see it. ???

Try a search engine and enter "Mash Made Easy" (including the quotes)

I Understand, really appreciate your time to help a strange thousands of miles away

I think its this spread sheet attached as a photo?
 

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From the red link at the bottom of this page you can load Bru'n water spreadsheet (it consists of several sheets) that will estimate the mash pH if you carefully follow the instructions and fill everything.

The water report looks good, it's quite hard water that can be used for many beers even without major additions. It's good to check what Bru'n water says about the mash pH with your grain bill and adjust the pH with calciumsulphate or calciumchloride or maybe acid (especially the sparge water) if necessary.
 
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From the red link at the bottom of this page you can load Bru'n water spreadsheet that will estimate the mash pH if you carefully follow the instructions and fill everything.

The water report looks good, it's quite hard water that can be used for many beers even without major additions. It's good to check what Bru'n water says about the mash pH with your grain bill and adjust the pH with calciumsulphate or calciumchloride or maybe acid (especially the sparge water) if necessary.

Thanks

Its so confussing for a green horn this part of beer brewing.
 
As you can see your tap water pH is about pH8.0. It shows how inaccurate the pH paper is when the pH is outside the range of the paper. If your paper can measure between pH5.2 and pH6.0 so the pH8.0 looks like pH6. In the middle of the range 5.4-5.8 it will be ok to use the paper, although it will never be as accurate as an expensive, carefully calibrated, high quality pH meter would be. Fortunately, we don't really need to know it precisely cause we're just homebrewing :)

A tip with the spreadsheet ppm ~ mg/L in aqueous solution.
 
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