BIAB Sparge & pH

[Ilan34]

Hey all!

I do 2.5 gallon batches in a five gallon kettle. When my grain bill gets big enough, I find its necessary to do a dunk sparge. Typically, it would be something like mashing with 3.5 gallons of water, and sparging with an additional gallon - heated to about 168 degrees.

My question is, do I need to monitor the pH of the sparge water before dunking, say by adding lactic acid until it's under a pH of 6.0? Is this overkill or is it necessary?

 

[RM-MN]

I think you are worried about tannin extraction. To extract tannins requires a pH over 6.0 and temperature over 170. It would be somewhat beneficial to control the pH but I wouldn't get too excited about it for your sparging. Mash pH is much more important.

 

[Ilan34]

Yep, tannins and just keeping my pH in range overall. I do control my mash pH, so it's good to hear that the sparge doesn't matter so much.

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