Consistent ph problems

[regulatedhobbyist]

I seem to be having a bit of an issue with pH. My stuck ferment from

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/abv-question-311521/

seemed to be because the pH was down in the 2's. Now I have my Strawberry melomel going and it stopped on day threeish and once again the culprit was low pH! Am I doing something wrong here? I figured out how to fix it, and have a bag of calc carb and test strips. Is there something in the process that I may be doing wrong?

 

[regulatedhobbyist]

Also does a low pH kill yeast? Such as EC1118 and D47?

 

[GinKings]

Hard to tell if you're doing anything wrong without any info.

 

[regulatedhobbyist]

Hard to tell if you're doing anything wrong without any info.

Yeah sorry about that. I heat the honey (store bought clover)with water just to mix it. usually add my fruit in the primary container, and pour the must over the fruit. Make a starter, top off the primary container, let the must cool, take an OG reading and pitch. I don't believe that I am missing something. I have never used acid blend as I believe honey is usually acidic enough.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Have you checked the pH of the water you are using? If its the fruit causing issues, switch to adding it to your secondary when fermentation is complete instead, this also helps retain more fruit flavor and aroma

 

[regulatedhobbyist]

And I thought that might be the case with the strawberries. I did a blackberry and had no problems at all. I'm also having this issue with a traditional. I think I got the traditional going again though.

I used distilled (reverse osmosis) water for the traditional, but spring water for the strawberry. Curious...

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Do you use distilled to hydrate the yeast? I think it may have been biochem that did some research on this, apologies to whoever else it was if im incorrect. But they reported in here that they found using distilled is ok for main water source but it's beneficial to use tap water to hydrate the yeast

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Also, thinking back to past threads, strawberries seem to be one of the more fickle of fruits in a mead requiring a little constant attention and special treatments. I've never used them myself but there are a lot if past threads on them

 

[regulatedhobbyist]

Do you use distilled to hydrate the yeast? I think it may have been biochem that did some research on this, apologies to whoever else it was if im incorrect. But they reported in here that they found using distilled is ok for main water source but it's beneficial to use tap water to hydrate the yeast

So it is okay to use tap water in your meads at all? I have always thought to avoid municipal sources at (slightly less than) all costs. Hmmm......pondering....

Also, thinking back to past threads, strawberries seem to be one of the more fickle of fruits in a mead requiring a little constant attention and special treatments. I've never used them myself but there are a lot if past threads on them

I was also thinking that this may be the case. I believe strawberries may be a little more acidic to begin with. But this brings the question as to why this happened with the traditional as well?

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

What do you sanitize with? what type primary vessel do you use (glass carboy, plastic bucket)? what type of nutrients do you use? We'll just have to use process of elimination. Can you remember of the batches that have had the pH issues, is there a pattern or something in common, thats why I asked about the primary vessel. While pH can be adjusted dropping into the 2's and your yeast going dormant in every batch is going to get old and stressful (for you and your yeast)

 

[fatbloke]

Water ? If it tastes ok then it's fine to use (bare in mind that it does seem that the best brews are made with "soft" water). RO or distilled are fine, as all of the mineral, energy, nutritional needs should be met with the ingredients - relying on the trace amounts in water is a fools game - you'd have to have the kind of levels found in raw sewage to make a difference!

pH swings are typical in meads, especially if there's fruit in the recipe. Aerating down to the 1/3rd (or even 1/2) sugar break, not only allows air/O2 into the brew for yeast development, but also keeps the yeast cells suspended allowing for nucleation points which aid bubbles to form from the carbonic acid and rising to the surface as CO2, which also aids in the reduction of pH swings. If it's still experienced (pH swings that is), then something to raise the pH should be considered.....

 

[boo boo]

Yeah sorry about that. I heat the honey (store bought clover)with water just to mix it. usually add my fruit in the primary container, and pour the must over the fruit. Make a starter, top off the primary container, let the must cool, take an OG reading and pitch. I don't believe that I am missing something. I have never used acid blend as I believe honey is usually acidic enough.

Do you use yeast nutrients in your melomel ?

 

[biochemedic]

As The Brewing Medic mentioned, I did do some research on rehydration, and from what I've read, you definitely do not want to use distilled or RO water for rehydration. I believe the verbage on the Lallemand website was that doing this is "deadly" for the yeast! Using regular tap water +/- a rehydration nutrient such as GoFerm is a much better way to go. If you did rehydrate with distilled and killed off a lot of the yeast, a $h!tty pitch rate could definitely contribute to a stuck ferment. (not sure how this would cause a drop in pH though, so this is probably an aside as it relates to your current question/problem...)

Regarding acidity, I've never had an issue with it as far as I can tell. I've actually never even checked the pH of my mead...Fortunately, I've [knocks on the closest wooden thing around] never had a stuck ferment. I do have certain procedures, though, which I suspect has contributed to my success:
1) I never add acid to primary -- if acid blend goes in, it's at bottling.
2) I degas frequently in early primary...carbonic acid from dissolved CO2 is a big contributor to lowering the pH
3) I tend to add fruit in secondary rather than primary. If I do add fruit in primary, it's generally after fermentation has gotten started, perhaps 3-5 days into the ferment, or even as it's started to slow down already.

 

[regulatedhobbyist]

so, then, what is the best pH testing equipment I should look at? regular wine pH strips? plain old litmus paper?