PlinyTheMiddleAged
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- Joined
- Jan 9, 2014
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First post (long time reader)!
I've been trying to correct problems with my home brew - addressed fermentation temperature, yeast pitch rates, and now water chemistry.
Today I made a Kentucky Breakfast Stout clone using bottled water and a little additional salt (Calcium Chloride and Epsom Salts) to bring the water in line with Bru'n Water's recommended Black Balanced profile. Estimated pH (with no additional acid) was 5.4 - perfect.
I mashed in and checked temperature and pH every 15 minutes from time zero for the duration of the 60 minute mash. I checked temp with a thermapen (checked calibration prior to mash in with ice water and boiling water) and pH with a Hanna pHep model HI 98128 (calibrated last night using 2 point calibration). Here are my pH readings:
0 min - 5.66
15 min - 5.60
30 min -5.54
45 min - 5.48
60 min - 5.46
So, my question is, since the pH varies so much over the course of the mash, what measurement do I target? A pH of 5.66 is way off, but if the 5.46 was important, I got pretty close.
Grain bill (if it matters) was:
13.25 lbs 2 row
12 oz roasted barley (500 L)
12 oz Chocolate (350 L)
8 oz Belgian debittered black (500 L)
8 oz crystal 120
1.5 lbs flaked oats
Mashed with 5.5 gallons of water. Baseline water profile was:
Calcium 20.0 ppm
Magnesium 2.1 ppm
Sodium 20.0 ppm
Iron 0.0 ppm
Bicarbonate 80.0 ppm
Carbonate 0.0 ppm
Sulfate 27.5 ppm
Chloride 3.1 ppm
Nitrate 0.3 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
Fluoride 0.6 ppm
Added 1.1 grams Epsom Salt and 1.7 gram Calcium Chloride to the 5.5 gallons of mash water prior to mashing in. This brought my targeted profile within spec to:
Calcium target 60.0 ppm - achieved 41.6
Magnesium target 10.0 ppm - achieved 7.3
Sodium target 20.0 ppm - achieved 20.0
Sulfate target 47.0 ppm - achieved 48.1
Chloride target 38.0 ppm - achieved 41.4
So, again, when do I check mash pH to make sure I hit the target of 5.4?
I've been trying to correct problems with my home brew - addressed fermentation temperature, yeast pitch rates, and now water chemistry.
Today I made a Kentucky Breakfast Stout clone using bottled water and a little additional salt (Calcium Chloride and Epsom Salts) to bring the water in line with Bru'n Water's recommended Black Balanced profile. Estimated pH (with no additional acid) was 5.4 - perfect.
I mashed in and checked temperature and pH every 15 minutes from time zero for the duration of the 60 minute mash. I checked temp with a thermapen (checked calibration prior to mash in with ice water and boiling water) and pH with a Hanna pHep model HI 98128 (calibrated last night using 2 point calibration). Here are my pH readings:
0 min - 5.66
15 min - 5.60
30 min -5.54
45 min - 5.48
60 min - 5.46
So, my question is, since the pH varies so much over the course of the mash, what measurement do I target? A pH of 5.66 is way off, but if the 5.46 was important, I got pretty close.
Grain bill (if it matters) was:
13.25 lbs 2 row
12 oz roasted barley (500 L)
12 oz Chocolate (350 L)
8 oz Belgian debittered black (500 L)
8 oz crystal 120
1.5 lbs flaked oats
Mashed with 5.5 gallons of water. Baseline water profile was:
Calcium 20.0 ppm
Magnesium 2.1 ppm
Sodium 20.0 ppm
Iron 0.0 ppm
Bicarbonate 80.0 ppm
Carbonate 0.0 ppm
Sulfate 27.5 ppm
Chloride 3.1 ppm
Nitrate 0.3 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
Fluoride 0.6 ppm
Added 1.1 grams Epsom Salt and 1.7 gram Calcium Chloride to the 5.5 gallons of mash water prior to mashing in. This brought my targeted profile within spec to:
Calcium target 60.0 ppm - achieved 41.6
Magnesium target 10.0 ppm - achieved 7.3
Sodium target 20.0 ppm - achieved 20.0
Sulfate target 47.0 ppm - achieved 48.1
Chloride target 38.0 ppm - achieved 41.4
So, again, when do I check mash pH to make sure I hit the target of 5.4?