Ph meter usefulness ?

Been brewing ag fo about 4 year now, using tap water, ward labs report and brun'water with salt additions. My beers have mostly been ok, nothing spectacular. I always suspected my mash ph was a problem as this was the last variable I still didn't control ( I use a thermapen for my mash temps, use a temperature controlled fermentation chamber, use a stirplate for my yeast starters and oxygen my wort using pure O2)

As I'm getting increasingly frustrated with my beers, I decided to brew a stout using 100% RO water to eleminate my tap water variable. I measured my salt additions using brunwater to get a ph of 5.4. Four weeks later, I poured my stout down the drain, it tastes weird and it's no infection.

Now if I buy a ph meter, how useful is it gonna be ? My understanding is that you need to cool down the wort sample to measure the ph and by the time you get a reading, the mash conversion is already done. If you do not intend to brew the same recipe, you can't nail the proper ph right ?

Sorry for the long story but I'm seeking your help before I get out of this hobby : (

 

Subscribed. I'm planning on getting a pH meter myself, and would love to hear input and advice from brewers who have experience using one.

 

what are you using to clean and sanitize

 

Only slightly OT of the PH meter question (BTW, I bought one, as a newbie brewer, because I'm also a scientist by training and if you can't measure something....it's a character flaw, I know):

Is there someone locally who also brews and who produces great beer who you might consult on your process, maybe watch you do it? Perhaps a homebrew club or...?

 

Take a small sample and put it in a metal cup. Place the metal cup in an ice bath and swirl until it hits room temp. Should hit room temp in a minute or two. pH reading might take a minute or two to stabilize. Adjust as needed.

IMO if you had to dump a batch made with RO water something is going on besides the pH.

 

If you are brewing good beer you are, explicitly or implicitly, controlling pH. The same statement could be made for temperature. A pH meter gives you explicit control over (or at least explicit knowledge of error in) pH just as a thermometer does over temperature.

 

While a program like Bru'n Water can help guide your water treatment and additions, there is no substitute for confirming pH results with a calibrated meter. But that piece of equipment can be a serious investment to some. So if you are satisfied with your beers, you could get by without it.

 

The weird taste on your stout made with RO water... was it astringency, like the drying/bitter harshness you get from overbrewed coffee or tea?

 

No...it's very hard for me to describe, it's like a strange roundness that doesn't taste beer at all and afterwards, you taste the roasted grains. It's weird. I'll try again with my most brewed beer, my english pale ale, which I've brewed 7-8 times so far.