kombat
Well-Known Member
A few months ago, I bought an electronic pH meter to measure my wort pH. I used to batch sparge, but lately I've started trying my hand at fly sparging. I've never measured my wort pH, and would like to put my fancy new $100 pH meter to work.
My concern, however, is that the instructions for my pH meter list an upper temperature limit that is below what my wort temperature will be during sparging. So how do other people measure their wort pH during sparging? Do you collect a sample and wait for it to cool down to the testable range? I can do this, but while I'm waiting for it to cool, I'll still be collecting wort from the mash tun. If it turns out my pH has drifted out of the acceptable range (which is 5.2 - 5.7, right?), then I can stop sparging, but will have already collected a few quarts of the "bad" wort.
So what's the solution here? Flash-chill the wort for testing? Get a better pH meter? Something else?
My concern, however, is that the instructions for my pH meter list an upper temperature limit that is below what my wort temperature will be during sparging. So how do other people measure their wort pH during sparging? Do you collect a sample and wait for it to cool down to the testable range? I can do this, but while I'm waiting for it to cool, I'll still be collecting wort from the mash tun. If it turns out my pH has drifted out of the acceptable range (which is 5.2 - 5.7, right?), then I can stop sparging, but will have already collected a few quarts of the "bad" wort.
So what's the solution here? Flash-chill the wort for testing? Get a better pH meter? Something else?