ph adjustment

I am sharing the outcome what I expect to be too much baking soda added to the mash AND fermented beer (shame). I brewed a tweaked Old Rasputin imperial stout clone recipe in January. Recipe is here. About 10 minutes into the mash, I got a pH reading of ~4.8 using pH strips (shame) near room...

Hi all! Just after some advice about water profile and combatting Alkalinity, what the need to is and how to go about it. So... I have recently received a water report back from a lab and have given my CaCO3 results as 235, from looking on brewfather for the majority of styles im interested in...

i am just getting into water chemistry - as i have always tended to brew darker beers and it was only when i had less success with lighter brews that I realised I needed to do more. I have very high bicarbonate levels ~347ppm and total alkalinity of 285. Using the brun'water calculator, adding...

How I got a 3.35 mash PH reading I brewed a Belgian Blonde yesterday 10 lb German - Extra Pale Premium Pilsner Malt 38 1.5 75.5% 1 lb German - Vienna 37 4 7.5% 0.5 lb Belgian - Biscuit 35 23 3.8% 0.25 lb German - Melanoidin 37 25 1.9% 1 lb Cane Sugar - boil 1 lb flaked barley 9.25 Gallon...

I have a PH question on BIAB. I brew mostly blonde beers and PH seems to be a challenge with BIAB. I use brewers friend. A recipe with 9 lb German - Extra Pale Premium Pilsner Malt 1 lb German - Vienna 0.5 lb Belgian - Biscuit 0.25 lb German - Melanoidin 1 lb Belgian Candi...

After 8 years of quite successful brewing with just tap water and no pH measuring, I got a R/O system and pH meter. I believe that I calibrated the meter correctly. My question is - Beersmith predicted that I would have a mash pH of 5.63 and gave 1.05 ml lactic acid for a target of 5.2. I...

I'm wanting to brew a Belgian dubbel using the water profile for Antwerp embedded in Bru'n water. I have entered the details for my local water from the lab's water report: Calcium as Ca+ 23.25 Magnesium as Mg+ 8.75 Sodium as Na+ 17.70 Sulphate as SO42- 18.25 Chloride as Cl- 26.2 Total...

I started a thread a while back asking how important people thought adjusting for pH was. The poll gave a pretty even split from important to not so much. Given that there are some very advanced brewers, middle experienced and beginners, I would assume that the majority of brewers make no...

I recently got a report from my local water company and it came out to the following. PH of 8.3 I was wondering, what an ideal water profile would look like, and to see if what this is a good starting point for. I'm new to thinking about water profiles, but have recently started reading John...

I recently did a hands-on trial of the LaMotte BrewLab Plus water test kit. I was skeptical going into it with all the "chemistry stuff" involved with test tubes and droplets of solution A and solution B. But I was surprised how it was actually kind of fun, and the distinct color changes as...

I'm getting ready to brew a really hoppy pale ale today and have a few questions about my mash PH. In beersmith, after all of my mineral additions, it says that my est. Mash PH will be 5.53. I know that the recommended range is 5.2-5.6. Will my mash PH be increasing over the duration of the...

So I'm trying to start using brewing salts on brew day and started using the EZ water spreadsheet alongside beersmith to help guide me. I seem to have everything worked out in terms of which salts to add and their quantities. I'm wondering if you guys agree with the dude at my LHBS when he said...

In EZWaterCalculator the 'Mash + Sparge Water Profile' seems to be unaffected by the sparge water if I set the sparge water to 100% distilled or RO water. For example, 3.125 gal strike water 100% distilled with 5g calcium gives a calcium ppm of 115. If I then enter 3.375 gal sparge 100%...

My understanding is that the reason the wort used in slants should be boiled in a pressure cooker under 15PSI of pressure is to raise the temperature high enough to kill botulinum spores. I've only made a couple of batches of slats so far and as I don't have a pressure cooker I've just boiled...

why does everywhere I read suggest lowering the pH by using brewin salts? Most are pretty much just spectator ions and barely affect (if at all) the H+ concentration. Ex gypsum...CaSO4, add it to increase Ca+2.. cool, add it to increase SO4-2...also cool. Why are so many sources online saying it...

I did my first BIAB batch last week. So far I've been using the classic three vessel setup (HLT, mash tun, kettle) with good results, but I decided to give BIAB a try just to see if it's all it's cracked up to be. I brewed a simple blonde ale to start with. So far my experiences seem to confirm...

In his latest edition of How to Brew, John Palmer writes (on page 338): "Water hardness helps lower mash pH, and water alkalinity raises mash pH." While I understand alkalinity and the way it makes water resist pH changes when mixed with acid (or malt), I am not sure how water hardness helps...

Hi all. Long time reader, but first time posting here, so hope I'm doing this right. My first crack at a Berliner Weiss-style has me a little stumped. I first made a 1 liter starter with DME and dumped in the WY5335 Lacto culture, incubating it for 3 days at ~100F until brew day. At this point...

Hello fellow brewers, I've been dipping my toes into water chemistry lately and had some issues with the calculators out there. I have had no issues with determining which salts to add to hit a certain profile in Beersmith or Bru'n Water. However, it's the pH adjustment that's been giving me...