PH impact on Efficiency

[Druman07]

I brew small batches, and I always have my LBHS mill two identical grain bills so I can experiment with the second recipe after doing the first following the recipe I am using. Today I decided that I would change the PH of the mash water by reducing the lactic acid by half, increasing my PH from 5.45 to 5.51 mostly to see if I could detect differences in the finished beer. Much to my surprise, my efficiency dropped to 55% and my preboil wort was 1.026, a full ten points lower the first time I brewed with the same grain bill, with the only difference that the PH is almost .1 lower. Based on my research here, I didn't think PH has that much impact on efficiency, and there must be something else going on here, maybe they didn't crush the second grain bill as well as the first? Am I right with that assumption? I am brewing a Rye Ale using almost a 50/50 mix of pale ale malt, flaked rye, and a small amount of wheat.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Yeah the pH can't be to blame for that kind of efficiency drop.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.ph...ncy_in_single_infusion_mashing#pH_experiments

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I agree! The efficiency hit is not due to pH.

 

[Druman07]

thanks for confirming my intuition. I thinking the milling may have been not as good on the second grain bill. Everything else was the same including the temperature profile.

 

[odie]

I’ve never even thought about pH... but I’m going to now...I always just used what came outta the faucet...learning so much after 25 years...

 

[Rev2010]

Yep, no way in hell that small difference in pH affected efficiency that much. Something else caused it. Might not even be the crush. I don't know what your setup is like but you could've had channeling in your runoff/sparge or something else.

Rev.

 

[Druman07]

It was a very slow sparge because of the large percent of rye grain and wheat, but I did the same recipe about a month ago, following the same method and the gravity was much higher.