pH of DME

[MaxM]

Does anyone know the pH of rehydrated DME? For example if I dissolved 3lbs of Briess Pilsen DME in 3G of water having a pH of about 8.8, what would the resulting pH be?

Here’s a little background for those who care to read: I’m making a Belgian Golden Strong and I’d like the final gravity to be low. I typically brew 2-3 gallon all grain batches, but for this one I’m making 5 gallons. I don’t have the equipment to do 5G of all grain, so I’m using DME for the majority of my fermentables. My understanding is that malt extracts are made to be middle-of-the-road for a wide range of styles meaning that the final gravity would be higher than I would like using only DME (which is something like 75% fermentable). In order to get the FG down, my plan is to mash with a few pounds of Pilsner malt so the enzymes will break down the longer chain (or whatever) sugars in the DME, hopefully yielding a more fermentable wort.

This brings me to the question. Typically I add a few mL of lactic to bring the pH down to where it should be for the mash, but I’m not sure how the DME will impact the mash pH in this scenario.

Thanks!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

A bump (maybe the weekend readers will have some insights) ...

and a link (to a blog post that I filed away but haven't got back to yet): https://thehopsoul.com/2017/08/29/extractipa/

 

[Vale71]

Does anyone know the pH of rehydrated DME?

The manufacturer probably does but I don't know of any of them that actually make such data available. Of course all they could eventually tell you is the PH you'd get when diluting the given extract in distilled water, if you're using tap water the actual water composition will have a significant impact on the actual wort PH.

 

[Dustin_J]

FWIW, I've had luck email Briess with questions like this in the past, although as Vale states, the most you can probably hope for is a measure from a standardized procedure.