Ph Compensation Horror Story

[Brewmegoodbeer]

On my last batch, I had a horrible experience with adjusting ph in my wort for the first time. The main reasons were that I didn't have the right tools for the job. My lhbs did not have lactic acid, so I bought malic acid (dont do this). My lhbs did not have an affordable ph meter so I bought ph test strips (do not buy these). So I found a crappy conversion for malic acid online to compensate for ph (didnt work). I checked the ph with ph test strips and they showed a color that was for a ph of 5.0 at room temperature. I then added baking soda to the mash and rechecked and then the ph test strip read a reading consitant with 6.0 (wtf??) so I aded more malic acid. i repeated this process until i got a decent color 35 mins later and half way through my mash conversion. I finished the beer and when fermenting, it suddenly stopped and the krausen dropped after just 2 days. I took the gravity after 1 week and it was 1.030. I gave it another week and it was at 1.024. I just pitched more yeast hoping to finish this sucker and no krausen yet after 24 hours. The current ph is 4.7. This beer might go down the drain in a week if I dont see a better gravity (plus it tastes kind of sour from the malic acid). I learned my lesson and ordered a ph meter and lactic acid for next time.

 

[Calypso]

Kudos for starting to think about your water chemistry. Unfortunately, it's one of those things where doing it wrong is worse than not doing it at all. pH meter is a good start. Find the Brun water spreadsheet if you haven't already.

 

[JonM]

Definitely steps in the right direction, there! Paying attention to water has been the number one most significant improvement in my brewing. Reading Palmer's "Water" helped so much, even if I did have to read and re-read a couple chapters because I don't have a science background and it took a while to click, but once it clicked it was just a total revolution in my brewing.

 

[secondbase]

I bought a pH meter so I could measure the pH of my finished sour beers, but I've used it more for the pH of the mash. It seems like a pricey thing, but mash pH and water profile are so important that I now believe it's my best brewing purchase to date. I will second reading Palmer's 'Water' book. It's a little dense if you don't have an engineer background, but he breaks it down in a way that makes sense to the lay-reader (me).

 

[worlddivides]

I've been reading up a lot and studying up a lot on water chemistry, and I definitely think I'll be buying a pH meter pretty soon. So far, the best thing I've done for my beers is meticulous temperature control. But I think the next step is meticulous water chemistry control. It seems quite complicated at first, but once you get into, it gets a lot easier.

 

[mattdee1]

I’m not saying that brewers more savvy than I are unable to do it in such a way that the beer benefits, but personally, I’m not a believer in “adjust on the fly” water additions. I’d rather do the calculations up front with Bru N Water, do the recommended additions, and let it ride. If my measured mash pH is a bit off, oh well, it’s always been close enough.