What's your preferred mash pH target?

[Waunabeer]

This entire thread talks about the mash pH. What is the pH of your strike water before mashing? Is there a direct correlation with the water pH at strike temp vs. mash pH? Shouldn't you adjust the strike water pH before you mash?

Sorry if I'm missing something here or if I'm way off base. I've never really controlled my pH before, but would like to start. Although my beers have been very good; maybe it was luck?

 

[dmtaylor]

This entire thread talks about the mash pH. What is the pH of your strike water before mashing? Is there a direct correlation with the water pH at strike temp vs. mash pH? Shouldn't you adjust the strike water pH before you mash?

Sorry if I'm missing something here or if I'm way off base. I've never really controlled my pH before, but would like to start. Although my beers have been very good; maybe it was luck?

The pH of my raw water is somewhere around about 8.3 or so if memory serves, which is very common for a lot of city water and well water alike. This value is irrelevant because as soon as the water and malt are combined, it falls to the upper 5's, and if pretreated with calcium salts or containing dark roasted grains, it goes down even further to the desired low 5's (and sometimes even the 4's!).

There is no direct correlation that I'm aware of between initial water pH and mash pH. What matters is the mash pH. You can pretty much ignore the pH of the source water. What it might tell you is a very general idea of how much salts or acidification you might need. However, you really must use software and/or experience with your water source to know for sure where it will come out. You're likely to find that with most batches, you don't even need any water treatment, as the mash pH will magically find a home around 5.3 all on its own without any intervention.

If you think about it... by human interference over thousands of years, it's to the point where malt and water were meant to be together, and come to the right pH pretty much all by itself. This is no accident, but through trial and error by humans over thousands of years to whatever "tasted good". Thousands of years before people had any concept of what pH was, people could make good beer very consistently, as long as they followed certain rules and techniques that were handed down from generation to generation. Just because we have pH meters and textbooks today doesn't mean that we really NEED those things. On the contrary....... maybe we don't! See here for a truly timely, perfect example:

http://brulosophy.com/2017/01/30/wa...he-impact-of-low-mash-ph-exbeeriment-results/

Cheers!

 

[lstewart89]

I aim for between 5.2-5.3 for APA/IPAs, and 5.4-5.6 for darker styles.

I think the biggest thing I learned when testing mash pH was to wait about 10 minutes once you've doughed in. I used to pull a sample as quickly as I could so I could adjust promptly, however waiting a little longer really helped get a more accurate number.

 

[Morrey]

This entire thread talks about the mash pH. What is the pH of your strike water before mashing? Is there a direct correlation with the water pH at strike temp vs. mash pH? Shouldn't you adjust the strike water pH before you mash?

Sorry if I'm missing something here or if I'm way off base. I've never really controlled my pH before, but would like to start. Although my beers have been very good; maybe it was luck?

This is a darn good question and something that kinda freaked me out a year or so ago. Yes, adjust strike water first before dough in.

So I did my water calcs with Bru'n Water, added lactic acid which would potentially bring my mash water to 5.4 (my magic number) after the grain bill was added into my full volume (adjusted) strike water. Well, I had just bought my new ph meter and wanted to play with it. Here sits my 7.25G of "adjusted" strike water and I test it for ph. Darn...it reads 4.5 ph. YIKES I screwed up. Hold on, lets think this through. I started with source water ph of 7.3 knowing my grains will influence the mash ph once added in. So the 3mL of lactic I added according to Bru'n Water will swing back to 5.4 all said and done. Ok...it worked like magic. Ph of the mash was 5.4 as predicted allowing good conversion.

7.3 ph strike water unadjusted
3 mL lactic acid brought strike water ph to 4.5
10# grains buffered ph back to 5.4...perfect.

If you'll take the time to look into a water management program such as Bru'n Water, this will take you in the correct direction for sure. Your current water's profile is all taken into account so the program can help for make total adjustments with salts as well as acids for ph and other flavor balancing.

 

[Bassman2003]

How about this thought? - Ph choice seems to be connected to grain bills from the hombrewer's point of view but what if the Ph qualities were actually tied to the yeast properties instead of the grist?

Martin mentioned lager yeasts tend to not acidify. Well what if you made a dark beer using one of these non-acidifying lager yeasts? Would that result in a low acid tasting dark beer, even at Ph 5.2?

Maybe the emphasis is on the malts and should include yeast choice as well? Just thinking out loud.

 

[The_Bishop]

This is a darn good question and something that kinda freaked me out a year or so ago. Yes, adjust strike water first before dough in.

This is not always the right thing to do.

When you added acid to your strike water, you neutralized your alkalinity. While this is generally a good thing, sometimes it's not the best move. If you're brewing a particularly roasty, dark beer you might need some of that alkalinity.

It also depends on your water! I brew with RO that has a TDS reading of 4-5. It has next to no buffering capability. I can cause huge swings in pH with very little in the way of acid or base added to the water.

There's no 'magic bullet' to water chemistry, aside from starting from RO/Distilled and building from there. Local 'tap' water changes based on local, source and season. What works for you with your tap water will not work for someone else.