Testing and Adjusting Ph levels?

[GreatWhiteSlark]

Hello all,

I'm getting ready to start AG and was wondering if I could use my municipal water.

I hold in my hand the report for my municipal water supply. Its clean and there are no minerals that stand out as being harmful.

How much does Ph level matter? How should I test it and adjust it?

So far I've been using bottled spring water for my extract brews for good results, but filling up a half-barrel keggle with bottled water adds a decent expense to each batch, considering that a lot of it will just evaporate.

Thanks!

Prost,
Kevin

 

[clayof2day]

www.howtobrew.com Chapter 15. Great water intro and should help you interpret your water report and answer many of your questions. As far as pH goes, supply water pH does not matter, but MASH pH what you concerned about. Colorphast makes great test strips that are easy to read and specific for the mash range. Adjustments can be done with minerals, acids, or buffers. Perhaps the easiest thing to do is use the Fivestar product 5.2. It is a mash buffer that should set nearly any mash to the proper pH.

The think that really helped me understant water, though, was reading chapter 15 2-3 times with my water report in hand. Good luck

 

[flaminio]

Yes, residual alkalinity is what matters. If you've got moderately hard water or harder, 5.2 Stabilizer is a good idea for now. If you can bandaid your pH for now, you can focus on more important tasks moving to AG. Or, just brew beer that matches or water and not worry about it.

 

[BierMuncher]

I started using stabilizer 5.2 and it seems to have helped my beers.

 

[Aspera]

Most mashes will automatically adjust to about the right pH unless you have some really terrible water. If this is the case spring water from the store usually serves.

 

[SuperiorBrew]

Where is everyone sending their water to be tested?

 

[Brew-boy]

I believe Ward labs is the place to send water samples.

 

[Seabee John]

I picked up my city water report and it didn't mention some of the particulars covered in "How to Brew" (which I found very helpful) So I called the city and actually spoke with one of the guys who monitor the water plant. We've got relatively good water here in Minnesota, and my city owns two deep wells which makes for better water than the surrounding cities who pull water out of one of the nearby lakes. Long story short is, it was good to read how to brew, and then be able to ask the "right" questions at the city. It may take some time, but if you get the right person on the phone, they can tell you just as much as any testing company.