Mash pH Issues

Want no ads? Go Premium and unlock all our brewing tools!
Nosybear

Nosybear

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2012
Messages
10,254
Reaction score
8,366
Points
113
Was putting together a recipe last night for the homebrew club and unfortunately in the presence of several potential users, ran into quite an interesting problem. As I was building the recipe, I saw I needed to reduce the mash pH from 5.61 to the target range of 5.4. So I added acidulated malt and the predicted pH went UP to 8.64. Hmmm.... Took the acidulated malt out, then added in lactic acid. The water calculator gave me what looked to be the correct amount but then again predicted the pH to be 8.64. Given the results I was getting for the amount of lactic acid, I'm assuming it gave me the correct amount of acid to add but it is displaying the wrong pH.
 
I've been experiencing oddities with PH values too... I can't remember exactly the PH value, but it was 4. something, which didn't look right. I was expecting something like 5.3 to 5.6, so I removed 50ml of CRS/AMS and the PH didn't move at all! But then I added a kilo of pale ale malt and the PH went up to 5.06, which didn't seem right either.
 
I'll put in a ticket right away for this. In the meantime if you could recreate the issue, and add a few screenshots here, that would be very helpful in finding the problem so it could be more easily fixed we'd appreciate it!
 
Will see what I can do this evening when I get home.... Actually, never mind. It seems to be working correctly now - with the acid additions it's showing pH 5.4, as it should. I did some fidgeting around with the acid additions and acidulated in the water calculator and everything seemed to function as expected.
 
Yooper said:
I'll put in a ticket right away for this. In the meantime if you could recreate the issue, and add a few screenshots here, that would be very helpful in finding the problem so it could be more easily fixed we'd appreciate it!
Click to expand...
While your at it can you check why the mash pH in water calculator is different than the mash pH in recipe. It's not that far off but it is off.
I have a recipe where I'm using a carbon filter on my tap and I had it analyzed and entered that as source then I took light and hoppy as target. I added salts and acid and everything looked about right, all green stars, 2.1 so4/ca, and 5.47 pH. but recipe shows pH at 5.35.
 
nununene said:
While your at it can you check why the mash pH in water calculator is different than the mash pH in recipe. It's not that far off but it is off.
I have a recipe where I'm using a carbon filter on my tap and I had it analyzed and entered that as source then I took light and hoppy as target. I added salts and acid and everything looked about right, all green stars, 2.1 so4/ca, and 5.47 pH. but recipe shows pH at 5.35.
Click to expand...

When that happens, it may be because when you go back to the recipe, if "update recipe" is not clicked (the one by the water calc link), it will show incorrectly. Could that be an issue?
 
I have updated the recipe and edited the water calculations from the recipe and then updated and it's still slightly different.
 
it is one I created for an experiment on my water. I just shared it and it's called SMASHED fly IPA light.
 
Oh yeah, I know the water calc update recipe button worked because the salts and acid additions were correct.
 
I see that the recipe says 5.35 in the recipe, and the water calc gives 5.35. So I thought this had been resolved. Is it still a problem in other recipes?
 
Yooper said:
I see that the recipe says 5.35 in the recipe, and the water calc gives 5.35. So I thought this had been resolved. Is it still a problem in other recipes?
Click to expand...
I checked it tonight and when I opened the calculator it had 5.35 for mash pH. but it had total water volume of 9 gallons. I'm conditioning 12 gallons to take into account losses and when I enter 12 gallons for total water volume the mash pH changes to 5.47. Does the recipe only take into account the volume of water in the mash and sparge for the pH? I'm adding salts and acid to all 12 gallons and then using 9 for mash and sparge. I do wonder why the total water volume changes when you save and exit calculator ten update recipe and return to calculator.
 
I have found that if you make changes to water volumes in the recipe, you need to update the volumes in the calculator as well
 
Thanks, that was it. I added 3 gal to sparge in recipe as loss left in HLT and that fixed it. Now it matches the calculator in every respect.
 
FTW!
(for the win)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Want no ads? Go Premium and unlock all our brewing tools!
Copyright © 2007-2025 Brewer's Friend, Inc. - Send Feedback - Terms - RSS Feed - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Back
Top