Liquor pH 4.1 for a Lager, is that ok?

[andyn2001]

I don't often brew a lager, but just prepared my liquor for a Kolsch tomorrow. I've added some lactic acid as per Murphy and Sons water report, but the Liquor pH is now down to 4.1, which sounds way too low. Will it rise up when I mash? It normally goes down when grains are added.....so frightened to use this liquor now.

The report from Murphy & sons also suggests adding Calcium Sulphate and Calcium Chloride to the mash, and they also lower pH.

Any thoughts?

 

[acidrain]

Are you measuring your liquor with no grains added?
That's not how you do it. The water PH has little/no affect on wort PH.
Start by entering your known water report levels into a brewing water calculator like Brewers Friend. Make the adjustment per style suggestions that the calculator tells you.
Take PH readings of your wort while mashing.
Adjust as necessary while mashing.
It may take up to 20 minutes for the readings to stabilize after making adjustments, and always cool the wort to the desired temperature for accurate measurements. Make small adjustments. The brewing calculators are very good at hitting the PH. I rarely have to adjust.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Take PH readings of your wort while mashing. Adjust as necessary while mashing.
It may take up to 20 minutes for the readings to stabilize after making adjustments, and always cool the wort to the desired temperature for accurate measurements.

I agree with most of this, except for the fundamental idea above. I think it's more important to be familiar with the grainbill/recipe and how hit plays with your own process. In the example above, it's stated "adjust as necessary", but if it takes 20+ minutes to cool the wort (readings should be done at room temp), and get a stable reading, your conversion is already well on its way, and most likely already 100% completed. Further adjustments to pH would be too late.

To me, it's more important to be familiar with the recipe/process so you know for subsequent iterations of the same grist what your ballpark pH will be. And i know a lot - a LOT - of brewers adjust the mash pH on the fly, but realistically if you're adjusting to hit 5.4 vs 5.5, I think someone would be hard pressed to tell the difference between two beers side-by-side with only that variable change.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Like acidrain said, though: starting water pH has minimal affect on mash pH. You'd be surprised, actually, how the act of mashing stabilizes pH around the optimal mash pH. Water too low in pH? Mashing will bring it up. Water too high? Mashing will bring it down.

 

[acidrain]

It only takes 2 minutes to cool a small sample of wort lol.