Brewers Friend mash pH variance

[Tutsbrew]

I'm wondering if the discrepancy of over .6 in mash pH between the estimated (yes, I know, 'estimated' but please read on) pH and my actual pH is pretty normal for BF or if my recent variance was a quirk...

I used the hell out of the software regarding source water, salt additions, grist, etc all very carefully and of course it spits out, among other things, the anticipated mash pH at room temp. -yes, i corrected it for mash temp-

*So for those of you out there who not only use BF to build recipes but also use it to build water profiles AND who measure your mash pH: Have you noticed any on going disparities between forecasted pH and your actual? My actual mash pH was just over .6 lower than what BF predicted. Any of you, doing the above*, notice the same at all?

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Have you tried any of the other tools like Bru'N Water or EZ Water calculator to see if they give similar results?

For you to be that far off i'd expect something major to be wrong(wrong amount of salts added, base water not what you thought, or the wrong grains given to you)...

 

[Tutsbrew]

Thanx Fuzze. So being that far off is to be thought of as a definite issue. That's good to know... Ok, well, I'll double up on the "measure twice mash once" idea and take it from there.

 

[Hermit]

Yeah, I was a full .01 off last time. Can't trust that software for estimates.

 

[Staylow]

My actual mash ph always seems to be .1 - .3 points lower than that the estimate BF gives me.

 

[Tutsbrew]

My actual mash ph always seems to be .1 - .3 points lower than that the estimate BF gives me.

Hmmm. Kinda makes me think that not only some minute (hopefully) technical issues on my part may exist but also that the software might indeed estimate pH a bit high... I will pay double attention to the details and take even better notes to see if I can find wtf.

...I wonder if using two different software's (assuming water salt additions included on the second one) for same recipe/water build and comparing the estimations and actual would be a good thing!

 

[Calichusetts]

Do you convert the SRM to lovibond when entering your grain bill? This helped me tremendously.