Brewing water PH ?

[Firestorm159]

For many years I have been buying RO water to brew with but recently I've gotten tired of spending 12 on water and driving to lowes to buy it. So I purchased a carbon block water filter.
After receiving it I sent a sample to ward laboratories. The report says that the ph is 7.5 but after testing it with my MW 102 with a brand new electrode it says it's 7.4, and I had to swirl around the electrode to get it that high. So what do you guys make of that?

 

[Oginme]

Not much. The pH of your water is very much less important than the ionic composition of the dissolved minerals and salts it contains.

 

[day_trippr]

A carbon block can help with chlorine/chloramine but it's not going to produce anything resembling "RO" water wrt mineral content...

 

[Lefou]

If you're using filtered tap water from your home you should expect a pH above 7.
The water company will adjust the pH upward slightly to reduce metal leaching from your water lines. I purchase soft bottled water at the store and don't use my house tap water at all any more. From what I understand the bottled water lists a pH of 6.6 or so and has a low permanent hardness and very low alkalinity, so it's very easy to adjust for the lighter SRM beers I tend to make.

 

[Firestorm159]

I was just wondering why there was a difference between ward labs ph and what my ph meter read

 

[cire]

I was just wondering why there was a difference between ward labs ph and what my ph meter read

That is the one measurement that can/will change as it depends upon the amount of air (particularly CO2) absorbed into the sample at the times when pH is measured. What is important for brewing are the mineral contents of your water, so did Ward labs measure those and if they did would you care to advise what they found?

 

[dmtaylor]

My tap water pH is about 8.3-8.4. Somehow I still make beer.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

As others said ph of the source water is pretty meaningless. The alkalinity is what matters in regards to ph, because that determines how hard it will be to actually drop the ph to where you want it. You should have that number on your ward labs report.

 

[Dgallo]

For many years I have been buying RO water to brew with but recently I've gotten tired of spending 12 on water and driving to lowes to buy it. So I purchased a carbon block water filter.
After receiving it I sent a sample to ward laboratories. The report says that the ph is 7.5 but after testing it with my MW 102 with a brand new electrode it says it's 7.4, and I had to swirl around the electrode to get it that high. So what do you guys make of that?

Ph is very simple to correct so it’s not a concern for base water. Your so4, Cl, Ca, Na, mg, and total hardness are more important measurements for a standard. My tap in usually 7.8-8.4ph on brew day and with baking soda (for dark beers) and lactic or phosphoric acid with high concentrations make it very simple to adjust to hit my target mash ph of 5.4

 

[Firestorm159]

So what your saying is I should test my ph every time prior to brewing and enter that into bru'n water because

That is the one measurement that can/will change as it depends upon the amount of air (particularly CO2) absorbed into the sample at the times when pH is measured. What is important for brewing are the mineral contents of your water, so did Ward labs measure those and if they did would you care to advise what they found?

That is the one measurement that can/will change as it depends upon the amount of air (particularly CO2) absorbed into the sample at the times when pH is measured. What is important for brewing are the mineral contents of your water, so did Ward labs measure those and if they did would you care to advise what they found?

pH 7.5/ Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 120 Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.20/ Cations / Anions, me/L / 1.7 1.7/
Sodium, Na 24/ Potassium, K 2 /Calcium, Ca 8.6/ Magnesium, Mg 2/ Total Hardness, CaCO3 31/ Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)/ Sulfate, SO4-S 3/ Chloride, Cl 33/ Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0/ Bicarbonate, HCO3 33/ Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 27/ Total Phosphorus, P 0.28/ Total Iron, Fe 0.01 "<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

 

[Oginme]

I think what the majority of the responses are saying is that a couple of tenths difference in your actual water pH has so little actual effect on the mash pH that you can pretty much ignore it. The mineral and ionic balance of your water has more impact on the pH than the starting pH of the water itself.

 

[Dgallo]

So what your saying is I should test my ph every time prior to brewing and enter that into bru'n water because



pH 7.5/ Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 120 Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.20/ Cations / Anions, me/L / 1.7 1.7/
Sodium, Na 24/ Potassium, K 2 /Calcium, Ca 8.6/ Magnesium, Mg 2/ Total Hardness, CaCO3 31/ Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)/ Sulfate, SO4-S 3/ Chloride, Cl 33/ Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0/ Bicarbonate, HCO3 33/ Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 27/ Total Phosphorus, P 0.28/ Total Iron, Fe 0.01 "<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit

Idk how versed you are in water chemistry so If I’m being redundant or explaining what you already know I apologize in advance. Ph is important when targeting specific mash Ph, pre/post boil ph and finished beer ph. That being said you natural tap ph is not important into itself since it can be easily adjusted using Brewing chemistry ie brewing acids/salts to hit the your target ph at different stages. Now why folks here are explaining why your hardness/alkalinity is more important is because that determines how much adjustment will be made to hit you specific targeted ph.

You should read this, it will help you form a understanding of water chemistry for brewing. https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge

 

[VirginiaHops1]

What we're saying is you should never waste the time or energy checking the ph of your mash water before the mash. It's a meaningless number and will change during the mash once you add your grains. You absolutely should check your mash ph during the mash though. The softwares can help you predict what that number will be but it's always good to test it yourself, at least until you've done that recipe before and know what to expect. And what that number will be is driven by is the alkalinity(buffering capacity) of your source water, not the starting ph.

Some people do check the ph of their sparge water, if you're sparging. I have once or twice but since I use RO water to sparge I pretty much ignore that too, and instead do the next ph reading during the boil.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

So what your saying is I should test my ph every time prior to brewing and enter that into bru'n water because

I guess it is telling about how important your water's pH is since Bru'n Water does not even have a cell for you to enter that value (other than on the calculator that helps to calculate Bicarbonate).

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I was just wondering why there was a difference between ward labs ph and what my ph meter read

It could be due to seasonal variances in the water or the source of the water.