Whose pH value to trust?

[beeguy]

I have been doing a lot of reading on pH, water chem, etc. and have noticed that there is a wide range of what people say is the best. For samples at room temp. I see everything from 5.2 to 5.8. This seems like a wide spread and with all the spreadsheets/ programs I could get close to any value I want- question is which one.

In the past my beers typically came in at 5.2-5.4 but maybe I am missing out by keeping them this low. What about a 5.6 pH which is in the middle of Palmer's range (5.4-5.8)? What have others found? Thanks

 

[Nateo]

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/How_pH_affects_brewing

 

[beeguy]

Yes that is a great site for info and the one that started my question. He reports the 5.2-5.4 optimum vs. Palmer's 5.4-5.8 which still leaves me wondering which author to follow?

 

[pkeeler]

I would shoot for 5.4-5.6, but accept 5.3-5.7 without worrying. If working with large amounts of low enzyme grains, shoot for 5.7. Maybe try and learn more and tweak these numbers. I don't know how yeast and your brewery process effects the final pH of the beer. Much of what is on that page is talking about correct mash pH to get conversion, but also correct beer final pH. We all probably should be checking the final pH of our beer and comparing that to the mash pH. Then we can predict better what mash pH we need to get the best flavor from the final pH. There might have to be some kind of compromise though, as the best mash efficiency might be at a slightly different pH. I have a feeling what we would find is a range of 5.4-5.7.

 

[Nateo]

I trust Kunze and Narziss more than Palmer, just because Kunze and Narziss wrote more technical books intended for professional brewers and academics, whereas Palmer's book is intended more for homebrewers. Palmer skips over a lot of little technical details. I'm thinking specifically of the difference between Noonan's writing about mashing vs Palmer's.