premington
Well-Known Member
This post relates to a previous thread that discussed whether it was necessary and/or beneficial to adjust strike water pH prior to dough-in. Some feel that adjusting pH is not necessary while others believe it can benefit the mash pH.
I wanted to learn what would happen if I adjusted the strike water pH. I'll be making an American Ale in a week, so I used this recipe's grain bill. This will help decide on adjustments to the strike and sparge water.
I just finished performing four test mashes. The results were interesting. It turned out a little different than I thought.
Here's the grain bill for the American ale. All amounts have been reduced 1/100th of the amount used in the recipe.
Water: 4 gallons are used in the initial mash (not counting sparge). Amount in each sample: 5.12 oz.
2-row (1.8L): 35.84 g (recipe amount: 8 lbs.)
Vienna malt: 6.72 g (recipe amount: 1.5 lbs.)
Crystal 20L: 4.48 g (recipe amount: 1 lb.)
Flaked rice: 4.48 g (recipe amount: 1 lb.)
Flaked wheat: 2.24 g (recipe amount: .5 lbs.)
Four test strike water samples were prepared. Three samples were treated with Lactic acid.
Strike 1: 7.5 pH (untreated out of filtered tap)
Strike 2: 6.2 pH
Strike 3: 5.8 pH
Strike 4: 5.4 pH
I was not able to adjust the water ion concentration to what I intend to use in the recipe. The additions were so miniscule when reduced to a 1 gallon batch, I wasn't able to measure the amount on my digital scale. Additions would have been a very small amount of calcium chloride and gypsum.
The grains were added with water temp at 158 F. A few minutes after strike, the temperature stabilized to about 156 F. I let it drop to 154 F, then added each vessel back to preheated water, which held this temperature for 20 minutes (+/- 1 F).
After 20 minutes, I gave the samples a brief stir and then measured the pH of each. The pH test meter has automatic temperature compensation (ATC). Each sample's temperature was ~154 F.
The results are as follows:
Sample 1 Water pH: 7.5...... Mash pH: 5.65
Sample 2 Water pH: 6.2...... Mash pH: 5.6
Sample 3 Water pH: 5.8...... Mash pH: 5.57
Sample 4 Water pH: 5.4...... Mash pH: 5.57
So this little mash test showed a negligible difference in the mash pH when the strike water is treated prior to dough-in. Adjusting the strike water pH did result in a difference to mash pH, but the change was less than .1. Once the strike water reached 6.2, the change in mash pH was .05. Lower than 6.0 resulted in no mash pH change. Both the 5.8 and 5.4 samples settled out at 5.57.
What I find interesting is, the 5.4 sample increased pH to 5.57 while the 5.8 pH sample decreased to 5.57. I didn't think I'd see the mash pH raise. it appears the mash pH settles out on its own, even when doing so results in an increase in pH compared to the strike water pH.
It appears those who state it's not necessary to adjust pH prior to dough-in are somewhat correct. It doesn't appear to make too much difference with this grain bill. That stated, I'm personally not comfortable pitching water that has pH of well over 6.0. Based on these results, I'm inclined to set the strike pH to around 5.8, without being concerned for small variances.
Please post your thoughts. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here, and I'm interested to hear what others think.
I wanted to learn what would happen if I adjusted the strike water pH. I'll be making an American Ale in a week, so I used this recipe's grain bill. This will help decide on adjustments to the strike and sparge water.
I just finished performing four test mashes. The results were interesting. It turned out a little different than I thought.
Here's the grain bill for the American ale. All amounts have been reduced 1/100th of the amount used in the recipe.
Water: 4 gallons are used in the initial mash (not counting sparge). Amount in each sample: 5.12 oz.
2-row (1.8L): 35.84 g (recipe amount: 8 lbs.)
Vienna malt: 6.72 g (recipe amount: 1.5 lbs.)
Crystal 20L: 4.48 g (recipe amount: 1 lb.)
Flaked rice: 4.48 g (recipe amount: 1 lb.)
Flaked wheat: 2.24 g (recipe amount: .5 lbs.)
Four test strike water samples were prepared. Three samples were treated with Lactic acid.
Strike 1: 7.5 pH (untreated out of filtered tap)
Strike 2: 6.2 pH
Strike 3: 5.8 pH
Strike 4: 5.4 pH
I was not able to adjust the water ion concentration to what I intend to use in the recipe. The additions were so miniscule when reduced to a 1 gallon batch, I wasn't able to measure the amount on my digital scale. Additions would have been a very small amount of calcium chloride and gypsum.
The grains were added with water temp at 158 F. A few minutes after strike, the temperature stabilized to about 156 F. I let it drop to 154 F, then added each vessel back to preheated water, which held this temperature for 20 minutes (+/- 1 F).
After 20 minutes, I gave the samples a brief stir and then measured the pH of each. The pH test meter has automatic temperature compensation (ATC). Each sample's temperature was ~154 F.
The results are as follows:
Sample 1 Water pH: 7.5...... Mash pH: 5.65
Sample 2 Water pH: 6.2...... Mash pH: 5.6
Sample 3 Water pH: 5.8...... Mash pH: 5.57
Sample 4 Water pH: 5.4...... Mash pH: 5.57
So this little mash test showed a negligible difference in the mash pH when the strike water is treated prior to dough-in. Adjusting the strike water pH did result in a difference to mash pH, but the change was less than .1. Once the strike water reached 6.2, the change in mash pH was .05. Lower than 6.0 resulted in no mash pH change. Both the 5.8 and 5.4 samples settled out at 5.57.
What I find interesting is, the 5.4 sample increased pH to 5.57 while the 5.8 pH sample decreased to 5.57. I didn't think I'd see the mash pH raise. it appears the mash pH settles out on its own, even when doing so results in an increase in pH compared to the strike water pH.
It appears those who state it's not necessary to adjust pH prior to dough-in are somewhat correct. It doesn't appear to make too much difference with this grain bill. That stated, I'm personally not comfortable pitching water that has pH of well over 6.0. Based on these results, I'm inclined to set the strike pH to around 5.8, without being concerned for small variances.
Please post your thoughts. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here, and I'm interested to hear what others think.