169 degrees and Ph of 6 for lauter?

[letsbrew]

Hello i dont remember where i readed that for lauter you have to use water at no more than 169 degrees and a Ph no more than 6, its that right???

 

[BigEd]

Not quite. What you want to be sure of is that the pH of the runoff does not rise above 6. The traditional temperature of the sparge water and the mashout is 76C/168F. The combination of temperature significantly above that point and a pH of the runoff rising beyond 6 can cause excessive extraction of tannins from the grain bed causing an astringency in the beer.

 

[mabrungard]

The sparging water should be treated to bring its alkalinity to a low level, which generally means that its pH should be under 6. But if the starting water has really high alkalinity, then it may need its pH reduced to well below 6 to bring the alkalinity to an acceptable level (<20 ppm as CaCO3). If you are starting with water that already has very low alkalinity (RO or distilled), then pH of the sparging water should not be an issue.

The option of not treating sparging water to reduce alkalinity and then monitoring the runoff pH is a step I think can be avoided. The only thing I want to monitor in the runoff is the gravity. Avoiding oversparging via a runoff gravity cutoff is more effective in my opinion.

 

[letsbrew]

thanks to everyone good info you gave me, i check my gravity during lautering and i always try to get at least 1.020 but i havent checked the Ph at that point nor even the Ph of lauter water just i use soft water when i brew beer that has soft water and hard water for darker beers, you open my eyes!!