Brewers Friend Mash pH Calculator

[kiblerjd]

Hello again everyone. My last few batches I have been paying attention to, and playing with my water chemistry. I use the brewers friend site and I absolutely love it.

My question today is regarding mash pH. I used to have a pH meter and I sold it years ago because I just didn't feel like dealing with it anymore. I trusted the number brewers friend spit out for my last few batches and they were the best batches of beer I have ever made.

So Friday i'm going to brew a brown and the calculator is telling me my mash pH is going to be around 4.9 with all of the grain added. I'm using 18lb 2-Row, 1.5 lb 60L, 1lb 80L, 0.5lb pale chocolate (180L), and 0.25lb of English black malt (500L). I'll have 7.5 gallons of mash water and i'm adding 1tsp of gypsum and 1tsp of calcium chloride.

I know 4.9 is too low, but if I leave out the English black malt it bumps it up to 5.2 which is spot on. I trust the numbers this thing is giving me so finally here is the question. Can I just leave out the English Black and add it around 45 minutes into the mash? In theory this makes sense but I have never had to do it.

Anyway advice or experience would be greatly appreciated. God I love this site.

 

[MichaelBrock]

Yes, you can hold out the Black malt until the end of the mash. Many people do exactly that to keep their mash pH from getting too low. Will also take a bit of the acrid edge off of the beer.

 

[mabrungard]

Depending upon the style being brewed, I don't find that 5.2 is a good target. That is a little low.

Reserving roast and/or crystal malts from the main mash is an effective method for avoiding an overly low mash pH. However, it still leaves you with a low kettle wort pH after you add those grains to the mash. In a style like dry stout, that is OK since it relies on a degree of acidity for flavor. In other stout and porter styles, the extra low wort pH may not be welcome. Sometimes you just have to add alkalinity to the mashing water for the beer to end up great.

 

[kiblerjd]

I thought about raising the pH but it seems like I need an awful lot of chemical to achieve the desired pH. What would you recommend using. Also if you think 5.2 is too low what would you recommend. I'm all ears.

 

[1MadScientist]

You can re-calulate with just the base grain and add all the crystal and roasted grains in at the end of mashing.

 

[kiblerjd]

I had already re-calculated it without the black malt and got a pH of 5.2. Without the pale chocolate or the black malt I got a pH of 5.4.

I guess i'm curious which is better and when do I add them.

 

[1MadScientist]

Here's a good link, a Gordon Strong interview by Brad Smith; http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/05/31/advanced-home-brewing-with-gordon-strong-beersmith-podcast-39/

In my screenshot below, my calculation is based just on mashing base grain only. After a 90 mins. mash I add my steeping grains during a slow to medium ramp up to mash out temperature (about a 10-15 mins. period of time) to 170 F.

Link to jpg image; http://www.flickr.com/photos/madscientistbrewhaus/10860042976/

 

[mabrungard]

I thought about raising the pH but it seems like I need an awful lot of chemical to achieve the desired pH. What would you recommend using. Also if you think 5.2 is too low what would you recommend. I'm all ears.

I find that the target mash pH varies with beer style. In general, paler styles are typically enhanced with pH's in the 5.3 to 5.4 range. Darker styles are typically enhanced with pH's in the 5.4 to 5.5 range. Then you can through an extra wrench into the fray when dealing with extra tart styles like wit, hefe, and dry stout that may be better when targeting pH's in the 5 to 5.2 range. The bottom line is that using your judgement in setting a pH target is useful...crisper and tarter styles are likely to need a bit lower pH while fuller and rounder styles may benefit from slightly higher pH.