Understanding pH

[mpume]

Hello brewers ,as a new bee in this industry I would love some one to explain or make me understand what does the word pH mean and what is mash pH ,thank you in advance[emoji4]

 

[Rob2010SS]

Hello brewers ,as a new bee in this industry I would love some one to explain or make me understand what does the word pH mean and what is mash pH ,thank you in advance[emoji4]

In simple terms, pH is a value to quantify acidity. I believe pH has a scale of 0-14. The lower the number, the more acidic it is.

When performing a mash, the grains you add to the strike water have an effect on the pH of the water. I think that typically the darker the grain, the more acidic it makes your mash (lowers pH) and the lighter grains don't make it quite as acidic (higher pH).

Mash pH is an important number to pay attention to as it can cause things to be off in your beer.

Again that's the simple answer. Someone else may be able to get more technical on the descriptions.

 

[GPP33]

Seek out a book called “water”, your questions will be answered.

 

[mpume]

Thank you all am getting there

 

[RM-MN]

The enzymes that convert the starches in the grain to sugars work best at a pH of 5.2 to 5.4 but they will work OK in a much wider range than that. I have to add a bit of acid to most of my mashes to stay in the preferred range but until I got a pH meter to know that I was outside that range I still made good beer.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

For info on pH (how to estimate mash pH, adjust it, measure it) post in the Brew Science forum. There are some very helpful people over there like Martin and AJ that can walk you through understanding it.

 

[Morrey]

Water management can be a very daunting task if you let it become one....just take it a few steps at a time and learn along the way. We all started somewhere.

I started with an el cheepo ph meter from Amazon ($15). If you know the ph of the water you are starting with, programs like Bru'n Water and Mash Made Easy will suggest additions that adjust the ph of your mash to optimal levels. Staying in a certain ph range has many benefits which you'll soon discover by reading thru old threads.

I looked up YouTube and found some videos how to get started with the Bru'n Water program if you head in that direction. Good luck!

 

[mabrungard]

pH is the negative logarithmic concentration of hydrogen ions (aka: protons). You can just simplify that to concentration of protons. The more protons, the more acidic the solution is. Mash pH is the just a number, but it does impact the taste of your beer. In general, grain bills that produce pale colored wort will need some form of acid added in order for the mash pH to drop into a desirable range (5.2 to 5.6 measured at room-temperature). Grain bills that produce dark wort probably won't need an external acid addition since the dark grains are more acidic than pale grains.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

PH is tricky OP! I'm still trying to figure mine out. My 1st 2.5 gallon BIAB grain batch I didn't even measure it. That one is bottle conditioning so we'll see how it turns out. The 2nd I tried but I measured in the hot wort(oops). I got a 5.0, so although I don't know the exact PH I'm guessing it was in the acceptable 5.4-5.6 range after adjusting for temperature. My 3rd batch earlier this week I measured properly, at room temp and got 6.0, then 5.8 a bit later. I went ahead and stuck it in the hot wort just to have a comparable reading to batch 2 and got 5.6. The grain bills and acid/salt additions were fairly similar between 2nd and 3rd batch, what the hell. I didn't calibrate my PH meter before the 3rd batch because it was only 6 days after the 2nd which I did calibrate on. I used Brun Water and EZWater to help me on both 2nd and 3rd batches. Before my next batch I'll calibrate my ph meter again and hopefully can eventually attain some type of consistency.

 

[Tribe Fan]

Read this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/a-brewing-water-chemistry-primer.198460/