Mash PH

[GuingesRock]

Quick and dirty is the best way to brew.

I'll leave that chart to Jimmy for explanation. I got a rough guide for a few brew's from the Brew'n water spread sheet. From then I roughly learnt how much acid I'd need for a particular grain bill. I use phosphoric and put it in the strike water before heating. I check the PH of the mash at 15 minutes, but I don't fuss with adjusting it, I'll adjust the next brew instead. It isn't really that critical, and anyway no one really knows where the Mash PH should be. As long as it's in a healthy range, which it will be if you adjust it at all, you're good to go. I was so disappointed once when I read a PH of 5.1, but it turned out to be a really good beer in the end. It's all good experience.

[ivorm]

Yeah that's pretty much what I'm thinking, I'm just starting all grain so I was just wondering where to start. I might just borrow a PH meter and see how it goes. how many ml of acid do you add to a typical IPA or APA batch? Although I don't know what your starting PH is for your water, I'd be working with Halifax water so the water report says 7.4. I plan on doing a full volume mash in bag in a cooler and thought I read PH can help with mash efficiency, so I thought it might help to adjust a little.

[GuingesRock]

For a typical IPA, APA 12 gallon batch I add 7 mls of 85% phosphoric acid. Seven is one of my lucky numbers. I also use, for my particular water 3g of emsom salts and 3g of Gypsum and that's it. Three is another of my lucky numbers. Try to use lucky numbers if you can, it works well Seems to work as well as anything else

Good luck.



Yes I am a nut, but I get away with it.

[GuingesRock]

I'm off out today, but I'll help again maybe tomorrow if there's anything else. If you want to post the Halifax water, your grain bill, your planned additions and batch size, I might have time tomorrow to look at that for you. Other's may comment also.

[GuingesRock]

If you need a small amount of phosphotic acid try your local pharmacist. That's where I got mine from. It's medical grade there which is the highest grade. More expensive but you only need a little.

[GAM]

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[Celiacbrew]

Yeah that's pretty much what I'm thinking, I'm just starting all grain so I was just wondering where to start. I might just borrow a PH meter and see how it goes. how many ml of acid do you add to a typical IPA or APA batch? Although I don't know what your starting PH is for your water, I'd be working with Halifax water so the water report says 7.4. I plan on doing a full volume mash in bag in a cooler and thought I read PH can help with mash efficiency, so I thought it might help to adjust a little.

You can use a sheet like bru'n water to get you close with your acid additions but it can miss by quite a bit. Last brew day the sheet told me to add 7ml of 85% phosphoric. Tested my mash and was at 5.7 (room temp) instead of the predicted 5.4. So I added 6mls of acid to bring it down to the correct level. The way I figured that out was using Kai's rule of thumb chart that you originally asked about. So .2ml and 10kg of grain means I needed to add 2ml per .1 ph drop I needed. So 6ml total. That gave me a ph of 5.3 which means I overshot. Either the mash wasn't settled when I took my initial reading or the ph meter wasn't calibrated or my ph meter is cheap or maybe fairy's were screwing with me. But it was close enough for counting. oh and the reason the prediction sheets don't work great is that the measurements reported by the water company are averages but their process will be variable and the source water will vary. The water's mineral content and ph will vary through the year as the water reservoirs get filled up with rain water or gets more concentrated when there is little rain.

[GuingesRock]

I think the PH meter was screwing with you. I had one like that before. Kathleen got me a new one about a year ago and it mad a huge difference.