I just picked up a pH meter finally and plan to use it tomorrow night. I'm wondering though what everyone does to quickly and easily adjust the mash pH if its not in the range you desire? Is there a calculator out there that works best for plugging in an actual pH; a desired pH; and lists options for adjustments up or down. I'm sure it would have to account for the size of the mash and grist bill. My concern is having a mash pH way off from pre-calculated because of incorrect assumptions on water profile or something else. Also, if it is off at 10 min into the mash how do I get a quick adjustment done without dropping too much in temperature. I mash in a cooler in my cold garage. It's tough enough to keep temps stable without having the cover off too long stirring in more salts and pulling samples for checks. I have gypsum, calcium chloride, pickling lime, and lactic acid on hand for adjustments. It may be a "non-issue" but I would rather be prepared.
I use food grade phosphoric acid. Since I almost exclusively brew IPA's I know my water and my mash results. But, I mash in, stirring as usual. Calibrate the meter each time you use it…. both 4 and 7 Then I sample some of the water in a tall, thin plastic container just larger than the pH meter, just enough to get the electrode wet. Be sure the water is cool, I use a bucket of water and swirl the sample in the cold water bath. My mash pH with my water (tap:RO = 50/50, very high alkalinity) and mostly pale malts is usually around 5.6 I have found that adding 1ml for each gallon of water (IN MY SYSTEM) drops MY pH down to about 5.2-5.3 depending on the other grains added. You will need to add acid, stir, test again, repeat as needed. Just be sure you don't over apply because you cant take it out.
If you shoot for a pH of 5.4 and use any of the mash pH calculators, you will more than likely have a pH within the acceptable range of 5.2-5.6. This is assuming you know what your starting water profile is. After using the calculator and verifying the mash pH with a meter several times, I no longer feel the need to use the pH meter. That could be a problem if my starting water profile changed significantly, but it doesn't change much.
That's my issue. I'm on well water with a softener so that is out of the question. I don't have easy access to RO water. So I have to buy bottled water. I can find some info online about its contents but I don't trust it. I guess now I can at least check the pH accurately that I have been assuming for it. I use Brunwater and Brew Cipher for salt additions and pH calcs with my grain bill. The water is what I don't know. I guess I'm not happy if I have a pH of 5.6 for my IPA's when I want a 5.3 or 5.4. Could I tell? Maybe not but why not shoot for what most say is optimal.
You could send a sample of your bottled water to Ward Lab for analysis, assuming it always comes from the same source and isn't subject to much seasonal variation. What profile did you enter for the starting water in Bru'nwater and BrewCipher? Or...if you're buying bottled water anyway, why not buy Distilled Water instead and start with a clean slate.
It's Poland Spring. On their website they list it as less than 10 mg/l on everything important other than HCO3 which is only 18 mg/l. So pretty clean to start. The pH is listed as a range between 6.5 and 7.5. I don't get distilled just because I'm already paying a $1/gallon for the Poland Spring. I'll see what my new meter says for the pH to start and go from there I guess. I was just wondering if people "chase" the pH if off 0.2 or more from calculated values.
Okay, with 18ppm of Alkalinity as HCO3, and less than 10 ppm each of Ca and Mg, that's so close to distilled water that a typical Mash pH difference between a mash with your water and a mash with distilled water would be well under 0.05. I'm not sure what you mean by this, but the starting pH of your water isn't really relevant to final mash pH. Alkalinity, in particular Residual Alkalinity, is what's important.
I guess I thought the base water pH had more of an impact on the mash pH given that it's an input parameter in the calculator. Either way I'll be curious to see how the actual turns out vs. theoretical
If you mean in BrewCipher (@utahbeerdude's MpH models), the pH of the source water is used in sparge water acidification calcs, but not in the mash pH calcs. In the mash itself, RA rules, in part because of the interactions between Ca/Mg and phosphates from the malt.
To follow on to this statement, I'll add that the initial pH of the water does not matter because the alkalinity is predominantly due to the bicarbonate ion, with little contribution from the carbonate ion (in practically all cases). If the pH of the brewing water is greater than ~9.0 then one might think about including the carbonate ion, but this situation is really rare. BTW, an update to MpH Water Calculator is in the works. Among other things the new version will allow one to input the alkalinity "as CaCO3" owing to the fact that this is how alkalinity is usually reported. With this input (and an input for pH) the new version will calculate both bicarbonate and carbonate concentrations (for those who really want to know). Partly I'm doing this update because older reports from Wards Lab (earlier than about April 2014) do not correctly divide the alkalinity into its bicarbonate and carbonate components: for pHs greater than or equal to 8.0 the bicarbonate value is too low and the carbonate value too high. The total alkalinity (which is the directly measured quantity) is (presumably) the most correct value. The updated calculator will work directly with this input. Cheers!
