PH adjustment

[devilsbeltbrewing]

i want to start getting more advanced with my all grain brews and i know balancing PH is huge for healthy fermentation. i just purchased some test strips and lactic acid, i currently use calcium chloride to stabilize tap water but am concerned about my mash ph. i known it all depends on what base malts are used and the recipe but i would assume i am looking for somewhere between 5.3-5.4 for a typical brew with 2 row pale. any tips or feedback on using the strips and lactic acid to adjust?

 

[McKnuckle]

You won't get much out of this exercise without a mineral analysis of your source water. I have never used test strips, but everyone says they are nearly useless for this purpose.

The liberal range for mash pH is 5.3-5.6 when measured at room temp, and 5.4-5.5 is a better conservative range to shoot for. Darker beers seem to do better on the high end of that, while lighter beers can go lower. This is probably due more to flavor than efficiency, since dark beers have more roasted/acidic grains in them, and benefit from the balance of a more neutral pH. Lighter beers are generally more compatible with a crisp taste.

Anyway, the first step is to get the water analysis, then learn to adjust it with gypsum and CaCl, both of which lower the pH. After that, the grain bill goes into the calculation, and you observe whether you need to raise pH with baking soda, or lower it with acid of some kind. What kind of CaCl additions are you using to "stabilize" (define that?) your water now?

 

[TheHopfather]

You need to have information on your water, you skipped that in your post. Malts, recipe and water and you can figure out your pH and what you'll need to do to adjust it. Download the Bru'N Water spreadsheet, enter your water details, then your malt details and it'll pop out an estimated pH. You can then play with acid additions to get your pH where you want it.

Those pH strips are pretty much useless for brewing, you'll get the water guys chiming in soon telling you to get a pH meter to be sure. A strip would be better than nothing I'd suppose, but they are not accurate enough for brewing by any means.

 

[dogslapbrewery]

My approach is using salts to adjust the water profile im looking for to fit the recipe, stouts, ipa, etc. I then plug my numbers into the EZ water spreadsheet, I've found this sheet pretty close on predicting my final mash ph. I never bring my chloride, or gypsum over 150ppm and just use lactic after that to fine tune. Which based off my water is usually around 1-2ml of lactic acid, this will vary on recipe and RA of water. If you search you can find the taste thrust hold which I believe is about 1-2ml per gallons before you'll pick up the sour lactic taste. What I learned is when you're on the lower side of 5.2-5.3 you'll get a more crisp dry beer which works great for light styles, but this leaves dark brews astringent and thin on the pallet. Slide up around 5.3-5.5 and your stouts are thick and more rounded bringing those roasty chocolate flavors out. This is all based off my pallet and what I've experienced. I take ph readings during, and after mash, preboil, post boil, before kegging. If your serious about really owning this aspect of brewing get yourself a nice ph meter. Paper strips are so inconsistent and only give you a ball park. Im sure with lots of trial and error you'll nail it, but even with my ph meter it took me about 10-15 batches before i started getting good results from ph adjustment. No one will be able to give you the perfect recipe for water profile and nailing ph, this is something you need to learn based off trial and error. One big mistake I did often was take a reading after 5 mins freaking out that it was too high, so I dump a bunch of gypsum and acid in my mash, 10 mins later I'd be way too low. PH adjustment isn't instantly, wait at least 15-20 mins before you take your first reading. If you end up adding more lactic wait at least 5-10 mins. If your within .1 of your desired ph don't sweat it. It's not a perfect science, relax and have a homebrew!