Water and temp questions

[The_Glue]

Between removing my mash bag and transferring to the boil kettle the temperature or my mash/wort drops noticeably, like below 140F, will that dry out my beer?

Also for a 10L batch i generally mash with 9L water (for 3kg of grains) and "sparge" (i don't really sparge, i just top up the water in the boil kettle) with around 8L to collect 10L wort after 60 minutes of boiling.

This means that i treat 17L water before i start the mash. So basically my mash water and sparge water is the same. Now i worry that my boil ph might go too low because of this.

Is this normal or i should treat the two waters separately? My water is super alkaline (around 400ppm CaCO3 alkalinity) so last time according to Brewer's Friend Advanced Calculator i added 8ml phosporic acid to the full water volume (17L)

Should i just add acid to the mash (about 4ml) and keep the top up water untreated or my process is fine?

 

[The_Glue]

I just got an another question: Will a lot (like 50-100IBU) of first wort hops lower my mash ph?

 

[grathan]

Proper ph in the boil helps with break coagulation, so one way to tell if your ph is too high is that it may be cloudy and there would be a lack of break material forming.

I would stick with what the software tells you to add to the mash. An addtional 4ml might put you out of the sweet spot. Mash PH is more crucial than boil ph.

Hops won't change PH.

Beer could dry out if it takes you a long time. I guess it depends on how high temp you mashed at and how long it takes you to get temperature back up as to a flavor impact.

 

[The_Glue]

Proper ph in the boil helps with break coagulation, so one way to tell if your ph is too high is that it may be cloudy and there would be a lack of break material forming.

I would stick with what the software tells you to add to the mash. An addtional 4ml might put you out of the sweet spot. Mash PH is more crucial than boil ph.

Hops won't change PH.

Beer could dry out if it takes you a long time. I guess it depends on how high temp you mashed at and how long it takes you to get temperature back up as to a flavor impact.

It is not an additional 4ml, it is the only addition to the mash water. (instead of adding 4ml to the mash and 4ml to the sparge (8ml total) like i do)

This means that the mash ph will be correct in both cases but the boil phs will be different i guess.

I generally mash at 150 and do no mash-out or sparge. It takes around 20 minutes to turn on the flame under the boil kettle. By then the wort temp is around 130F.

Maybe i should do something mash out or sparge like at elevated temps to keep the mash temp above or at 150F toll the boil starts?

 

[grathan]

150 mash is already low temp and you won't notice a difference if the temp drops. If you mash at like 158* and wanted to maintain that profile, then the drop might come into play if you took 30 minutes or longer to get back to temp.


Sparge PH is important. You will want that water treated. I am not sure of the difference between top-up water and sparge water in your process.

Some breweries treat All of their water to PH 5.5 that is a good target to keep things simple.


But if you're adding top up water to the boil after the mash/sparge then it may not be so important.

 

[jschein]

20 minutes to turn on the flame?????

 

[The_Glue]

20 minutes to turn on the flame?????

Well i filter my mash with a strainer (the holes on my biab bag are too big imo, i get some larger grain particles in my wort) and then left my bag to drip/drain for a few minutes, this takes about 20 minutes

 

[The_Glue]

150 mash is already low temp and you won't notice a difference if the temp drops. If you mash at like 158* and wanted to maintain that profile, then the drop might come into play if you took 30 minutes or longer to get back to temp.


Sparge PH is important. You will want that water treated. I am not sure of the difference between top-up water and sparge water in your process.

Some breweries treat All of their water to PH 5.5 that is a good target to keep things simple.


But if you're adding top up water to the boil after the mash/sparge then it may not be so important.

Well my "sparge" water is more like top up water, i add most of it to the kettle at the beginning of the boil but sometimes i immerse my biab bag into my top up water