Empiciral PH tuning

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SimonMtl

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First post in this forum!

Like many people, I have spent countless hours trying to make sense of how to predict PH throughout the brewing process. Seems like no spreadsheet or tool is perfect.

I'm looking for a confirmation of my latest thought about this: How about "hoping for the best" when we first brew a recipe, take accurate measurements and then use this data to make super accurate adjustments on the next batch.

Yes, this means going through a first batch, but then we are certain to be spot on for all subsequent batches and no need for complex prediction theories anymore.

Makes sense?
 
You will most likely not be "spot on" after one batch. It all depends on what malts you use, and the water often changes by season too. The best thing if you really want to be spot on is to measure, and adjust while mashing.
 
First post in this forum!
Seems like no spreadsheet or tool is perfect.

True words! But those tools can get you closer to a good outcome. If you are really interested in simple and only brew pale beers, then the recommendations in the Water Primer are pretty reliable. I believe you can do better with a program like Bru'n Water, but it takes just a bit of work to understand and you'll need to enter info for each brew.
 
The Primer is intended to (and seems to do a pretty fair job) get you past just hope and into a fair expectation that you will get at least a decent beer. Using that and doing exactly what you suggest is indeed the path to good beer. Where the spreasheets and calculators come in is in helping you to determine how to make the tuning adjustments. You want to change mash pH from pHa to pHb. Should you do that with a bit more sauermalz, a larger percentage of caramel malt or a bit of phosphoric acid? Spreadsheets can help you make those decisions but the ultimate answer must come from experimentation.
 
Thanks for your replies. Anyways, I would be unable to only "hope for the best" without resisting to use a water calculator. But what I get from this is no spreadsheet will be more accurate than experimentation.
 
First post in this forum!

Like many people, I have spent countless hours trying to make sense of how to predict PH throughout the brewing process. Seems like no spreadsheet or tool is perfect.

I'm looking for a confirmation of my latest thought about this: How about "hoping for the best" when we first brew a recipe, take accurate measurements and then use this data to make super accurate adjustments on the next batch.

Yes, this means going through a first batch, but then we are certain to be spot on for all subsequent batches and no need for complex prediction theories anymore.

Makes sense?

This is generally called conducting a test mash.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/how-does-one-conduct-a-test-mash.639498/

Unless you're using the same malts from the same batch, in the same amounts with the same water you would need to conduct a test mash every time you brew.
 
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