I purchased a pH meter, calibrated it, and have used it several times to adjust mash. I am confident in my usage of it. So, assuming a basic blonde ale, does anyone know what pH I'm looking for for optimum flavor and stability past the mash? Preboil? Postboil? Postferment? Finished beer? Does hitting the mash pH coupled with a healthy fermentation negate the pre/postboil/ferment pH measurements? I guess my question is, am I leaving something on the table from a flavor standpoint by stopping at mash pH?
It is my understanding that for the most part, if you hit the correct mash pH, then pH will take care of itself afterwards. I do believe some brewers adjust pH after fermentation, but for standard (non-sour) beers, this is generally not necessary. The Mad Fermentationist blog may have something to say about this as far as sour beers go. Cheers!
I'm starting into this as well, my understanding is you want the finished beer to be 4.3 for stability. The last one I measured was 4.58 so my batch this weekend got a kick of phos acid to help drop the kettle ph. Sometimes you'll want to mash higher than what a healthy fermentation will drop the pH, so kettle acid makes sense.
Pro brewer's check it during the whole process. Here's a little info for the boil. Read the comments too. http://beerandwinejournal.com/proper-boil-ph/
Michael Tonsmiere (@OldSock) wrote an article for BYO entitled “Understanding pH”. https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/3372-understanding-ph-advanced-brewing Cheers!
Learn something everyday, and that is correct. Found this Bamforth paper that agrees, and some things decrease as you go lower in pH, flavor stability and so on. http://www.mbaa.com/districts/Northwest/Documents/BAMFORTH, pH in brewing.pdf
some lambic brewers add lactic acid to the wort to stop enteric bacteria growing, elgoods for example adjust theirs in the hopback to about 4.5 I wonder if adjusting wort ph would change the flavour contributions from certain yeasts like lactic acid producing ones (eg whitbread b ) So using acids like hydrochloric/sulphuric to lower the wort ph meaning the yeast has less work to do to lower the ph on its own, thus producing less lactic acid. Or if the yeast would produce it anyway and you'd just end up with a more acidic beer That's good paper @hopfenunmaltz , I didn't realise that the final ph would have an effect on oxidation and flavour beyond it tasting more/less sharp
I always find it interesting how focused winemakers are on pH, TA and other stability factors and how little brewers focus on it. My kettle pH goal is 5.4-5.6...
Adding lactic acid to the wort prior to fermentation to hold enteric bacteria at bay is also a very common practice for kettle souring. I do not believe that the lactic acid production efforts of lactic acid producing bacteria would be affected by said presouring. But again it does fight enteric bacteria, helps with head retention, and speeds up the kettle souring process a touch.
For clean beers, I'm generally looking for: a mash pH in the 5.1 - 5.3 range a preboil pH around 5.0 - 5.2 and a post boil ph around 5.0 - 5.1 which tends to result in a post fermentation pH btw 4.3 - 4.5 I add the necessary brewing salts (and sometimes lactic acid to correct) to both my mash and the boil kettle to ensure the first two. By doing so, the second two tend to work out. I rarely add lactic to the boil kettle. When I do, it's usually if I overshoot my target OG and add water to the kettle to dilute to said target. Depending on the size of that water addition, the pH of the wort could be raised enough to merit the lactic acid addition.
Nope…I have pretty hard water, and I try to get bring pH down with acid for paler beers, usually try for 5.2 in the mash which usually ends up ~5.4 pre-boil for me. That usually boils down to about 5.2 by the end of the boil. 5.6 would be on the high side for me…probably should have said 5.3-5.5 really… So what is your sparge water like? I'm just surprised to see that there would be a drop in pH between your mash & pre-boil...
I typically don't acidify my sparge water since I've never really found the pH of my runnings raising much. But you did just remind me that I should have mentioned that I typically add my kettle salts to the kettle prior to lautering. So my preboil pH already has my kettle salts in it and I assume they are responsible for the slight pH drop.
Not at room temperature, so I believe the conversion to room temperature would be roughly + 0.3 (some say 0.35) So at room temperature, that converts to: a mash pH in the 5.45 - 5.65 range a preboil pH around 5.35 - 5.55 and a post boil ph around 5.35 - 5.45
