I made a belgian blonde - it was about my 8th or so all grain batch and thought it was my best beer ever! I really liked it and so did all my friends. I went to a club brew day to observe some masters at work and brought a bottle of it. A BJCP guy tasted it and was very nice but instantly said - the chlorophenols are overpowering the ability of the yeast to do their thing and that I had very hard water. Before this, I drank my tap water and never tasted anything bad at all. I always made fun of people who drink bottled water instead of tap. Now all I taste is the chlorine - the power of suggestion!
I went to Lowes and bought the household water testing kit they sell and used it. My PH was about 8.5 or so. The water also tested very hard - almost to the top of the little color coded scale they provide.
I stole (borrowed) a ph meter from work (a pharmacy) and tested it with water out of the tap - 8.9. I bought some Five start 5.2 stuff from the LHBS. I went to Lowes and bought a carbon filter to take care of the chlorine. I mixed in the appropriate amount of 5.2 and I was still at 5.9 - 6.0. I added a bit more and it would only go down to 5.8. I went ahead and brewed with this (German Hef - 60% german wheat, 30% german 2 row, 10% munich). I did not dip the ph meter in the mash - this never occured to me and I thought it might screw up the ph meter - after further reading I'll do this next time.
The hef is testing the integrity of a blow off tube now and I'll have my first taste in a week or so.
Is a ph of 5.8 low enough for most beers? Is there something else I should be doing to lower the PH? I brew a lot of stuff more on the malty end of things than the super hoppy end of things - I rarely make anything with more than about 25 IBUs. I tend to make a lot of german and belgian stuff - weizenbocks, tripels, dunkles.
I went to Lowes and bought the household water testing kit they sell and used it. My PH was about 8.5 or so. The water also tested very hard - almost to the top of the little color coded scale they provide.
I stole (borrowed) a ph meter from work (a pharmacy) and tested it with water out of the tap - 8.9. I bought some Five start 5.2 stuff from the LHBS. I went to Lowes and bought a carbon filter to take care of the chlorine. I mixed in the appropriate amount of 5.2 and I was still at 5.9 - 6.0. I added a bit more and it would only go down to 5.8. I went ahead and brewed with this (German Hef - 60% german wheat, 30% german 2 row, 10% munich). I did not dip the ph meter in the mash - this never occured to me and I thought it might screw up the ph meter - after further reading I'll do this next time.
The hef is testing the integrity of a blow off tube now and I'll have my first taste in a week or so.
Is a ph of 5.8 low enough for most beers? Is there something else I should be doing to lower the PH? I brew a lot of stuff more on the malty end of things than the super hoppy end of things - I rarely make anything with more than about 25 IBUs. I tend to make a lot of german and belgian stuff - weizenbocks, tripels, dunkles.