adjusting mash PH

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/
or any of the other calculators ....depends on your mash grist (and starting water)

You must be using a lot of caramel/roast or have very acidic water if you need to raise the ph

 

A little acid malt (1/2 oz or so) should work...or don't even mash the caraMunich and chocolate.

I wouldn't even worry about doing anything to adjust mash ph in that instance.

 

As GreenKrusty101 said, Bru'nwater is good. I like EZWater, which is simpler (everything on one sheet), if not as powerful. But EZWater does about everything I need it to do (and I can modify it to do a few things that it doesn't). I'd recommend EZWater at least for getting your feet wet.

 

Are you planning to use something to measure actual pH, and then adjust? If so, what are you using to do the measurement? If you're using pH strips, from what I've read colorPhast brand are the only ones worth using, and they're not even all that good. I've used other strips before (Precision) and they've done nothing but lead me down the wrong road and cause me to brew a lot of bad beer.

 

I started to dabble in water adjustments, then Gordon Strong stopped me (in his book, not in person). I mash all my base grains, add character malts at end of mash, mix in, let rest 5 minutes, vorlauf, sparge, boil - 84% efficiency. I add calcium chloride and gypsum for adjusting flavor, nothing else. Just a thought, much easier, and pushed heavily by a master home brewer.

 

Nope. My water is perfect for brewing, low in everything, soft, good pH. Never had an issue. Strong uses store bought water since his is pretty bad and adds gypsum and calcium chloride for flavor. He also adjusts the pH of the water before brewing. I don't bother. I've been doing light beers since January and been hitting 81-85% efficiency. On my DIPA I just brewed I added the Carafa III (color) at vorlauf and worked like a charm. Wish I had done this for my IMP Stout last November. I merged Bru'nwater into my recipe builder and I look at what it says my pH will/should be, and as long as I am in range (5.2-5.5) on the spreadsheet, I go for it. I did a recipe for a Pilsner/Belgian Blonde double batch that was quite high, and calculated a lactic acid adjustment for that one, but that's about it.

 

What's your Ca?

 

4ppm, so I guess it isn't exactly "perfect" for brewing. I add some gypsum and calcium chloride (more of one than the other depending on style) to get my Calcium up to 50 PPM or more and chloride for maltier beers and sulfates for hoppier ones. Now that I think of it, maybe the low Ca is part of my issues with hazy beers? Outside of a few aged beers, all my brews are hazy.

 

I build distilled water up to 50ppm calcium for many beers and I never have problems with clarity. So I'm guessing that low Ca isn't the (sole) cause of your haze issue. Does your haze seem to be yeast (which very low Ca could cause) or proteins?

 

Not sure. I had some WY 1469 West Yorkshire that just wouldn't clear, and 1056 is fairly low floccing, but even my Saisons are cloudy (3726). I have some fairly tight yeast cakes at the bottom of the bottle, and I'm pretty good about leaving it behind. Might be proteins? I get a good hot and cold break.

 

My Ca is 20 ppm and ever so often I'd get a beer that while everyone liked, I'd get some minor issues that I could only link to fermentation. Now I'm very anal about everything to do with fermentation and all of the other variables were ruled out. And as I looked back the issues got worse after I got a proper BK and would get a full 5.5 gallons into the fermentor (I was always making a start for 5.5 and pitching the whole thing). So over pitching was helping. Two beers ago I followed a recipe w/water adjustments, but at that time didn't know where I stood. I didn't have my water profile yet. The recipe was made for totally different water and I actually lowered my Ca ppm. The beer is about three weeks old now and is very cloudy (English yeast was used which didn't help). Nice bitterness, aroma, etc., but just not fun to drink. I used basically the same recipe w/the proper calculated water adjustments and even though it's only six days old it a totally different beer.

I often think that people get to a point where they like their beer but never challenge what they are doing. So for the bad beer I'll probably share some with some people who are really into brewing and want to be judges. I think that it will be a good learning experience. Then more than happily I'll pitch it.

50 ppm is the low recommendation. And my guess is it's yeast dependent. Don't be afraid to bump it up.

 

Thanks. After I replied to you above I actually went in and set my recipe spreadsheet to 60ppm starting for each beer with a balance between sulfates and chloride. I will keep it standard and adjust for flavor. Oddly enough I didn't even think about all this until now. Still not gonna adjust for pH though, but then again, I don't need to with the way I brew. Thanks again.

 

Well covered above... I think most yeast need about 50ppm Ca to flocculate, so you want to start your mash at 60-100ppm, depending on your water and treatment.

Remember that water treatment (and many brewing procedures) grew out of the need to deal with less than ideal water. IOW, if you don't have 'Burton' or 'Pilsen' water flowing from your well, breathe a sigh of relief and look at what you might need to do with your own water to nourish the yeast and assist flavor development. Always use the smallest modification that gets good results. Also, much of the work that the brewer once had to do in the mash is now taken care of by the maltster, so most water doesn't need as much work nowadays (some obvious exceptions).