Any good PH meters out there that aren't a pain in the ass to maintain and store?
By "maintain and store" do you mean calibrate before use and store the probe in storage solution?
What is "affordable"?
1) It takes too long for the sample to cool enough to get an accurate reading while not killing your meter. Meters that can measure at mash temp are too expensive for *my* home brewery.
2) If you measurement showed that pH was not where it should be, to what extent should you go in an attempt to correct it? Depending on timings, conversions may already be to a point where it wont matter not to mention that any corrective actions will likely affect mash temp too.
3) I've gone through a few cycles of keeping track of strike water pH (both from testing personally and via lab submissions), using tools like BrunWater to calculate things and actually measuring during the mash. Through this I've found enough variance in the testing measurements for me to find these things not 100% reliable.
My problem with Mash pH measurement is threefold.
1) It takes too long for the sample to cool enough to get an accurate reading while not killing your meter. Meters that can measure at mash temp are too expensive for *my* home brewery.
2) If you measurement showed that pH was not where it should be, to what extent should you go in an attempt to correct it? Depending on timings, conversions may already be to a point where it wont matter not to mention that any corrective actions will likely affect mash temp too.
3) I've gone through a few cycles of keeping track of strike water pH (both from testing personally and via lab submissions), using tools like BrunWater to calculate things and actually measuring during the mash. Through this I've found enough variance in the testing measurements for me to find these things not 100% reliable.
In the end I've found that the calculated mash pH from BrunWater was "close enough" to what I measured if not spot on in most cases. Because of this, I've stopped worrying about measuring mash pH and trusting the tools of my process based on prior outcome.
Given your constraints, and based on my own experiences, I'd suggest that you spend your money on water analysis via a lab instead. You can have your water analyzed a few times a year in order to account for seasonal changes to your water supply. Keep a log of these over time and use the profile that matches the time of year with your recipe and tool of choice.
You can take this a step further and find a different metric to base your water profile selection on such as TDS. A good TDS meter is way cheaper than a pH meter and the measurements are quick. This is what I do; I measure TDS at the tap and use that to help me target the many prior water analysis (includes TDS, both what I measured at collection time as well as the "calculated measurement" from the report.) results I've done over time.
Wanna buy my pH meter? Its *lightly used*...
1) It takes too long for the sample to cool enough to get an accurate reading while not killing your meter.
2) If you measurement showed that pH was not where it should be, to what extent should you go in an attempt to correct it? Depending on timings, conversions may already be to a point where it wont matter not to mention that any corrective actions will likely affect mash temp too.
In the end I've found that the calculated mash pH from BrunWater was "close enough" to what I measured if not spot on in most cases. Because of this, I've stopped worrying about measuring mash pH and trusting the tools of my process based on prior outcome.
I live in NYC and my water is as soft as can be. I'm happy with my warer profile on everything besides very dark beers like stout which I believe need high bicarbonate. Currently I only adjust with gypsum and cacal. How to tackle soft water and a good stout?
I have one and its accurate compared to my spreadsheet calcs, to tenths. And it holds calibration too. I use a YSI at work and it needs Cal all the time. Several thousand dollars piece of equipment.What I can tell you is the $20 yellow PH meter on Amazon Ebay ETC is completely useless. I dont think affordable and accurate can go together in the same sentence when it comes to PH meters.Then theres the probe replacements that ain't cheap either
cheapest way to check pH is litmus paper strips. no calibration, no batteries. as long as you keep the container closed and dry ,it stores very easily.
I went with the Apera ph60.Any good PH meters out there that aren't a pain in the ass to maintain and store?
no, i dont overthink things like that in the first place.Have you found strips that give ph values to the tenth and hundredth decimal place?
no, i dont overthink things like that in the first place.
I have the same one, easy to calibrate, and easy to store in it's case with all the calibration fluids in one place.I bought this one and have used it the past 6 or so beers and really like it a lot. Comes as a kit with some starter solutions.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENFOIQE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Rev.
I have the same Apera meter as well and it has worked well through 2 brew days so far.
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