Mash pH - How Important Is It?

[jceg316]

Hi everyone, I've started taking pH measurements of my mash and was wondering how important this actually was? I've done it for one brew and it was 5.6pH, which is a little high, so I added small amounts of this winemaking acid blend I have to reduce it to 5.4pH. How important is it to control mash pH? Is it the sort of thing where the effort involved isn't worth the gains on a homebrew scale?

If it is worth it, are there better acids for lowering pH or does it not matter?

Thanks.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Mash pH affects lot of things but there is quite a wide range where things are fine (~5-5.8), you’ll maybe lose a little efficiency towards the top or bottom because the enzymes have a range where they are most effective.

@strange-steve wrote a couple of articles on water treatment you may have seen in the section on Grain, Hops, Yeast and Water that talks about acids and quantities.

 

[Sadfield]

Like using good quality ingredients, everything follows through to the final product. It helps with consistent efficiency, creates a good environment for healthy yeast and fermentation, affects colour, clarity, hop extraction with smoother bitterness, and improves storage stability. Is it worth the effort? It depends on what is important to the brewer.

 

[chthon]

This is my experience with controlling (mash) pH.

For a couple of years I only corrected only my mash pH, and that was fine. However, in the last two years I also started adjusting the pH of my sparge water, to around 5,5.

The result of this is that I have a much better hot break (coagulating proteins, like boiling the white of an egg), and the result of this is that I do not have any cold haze any more in my beers. They are clear after bottling and carbonation in a week or two.

pH affects

• the mash: better enzymatic activity
• the sparge: when sparging with untreated water the pH of the wort will increase, and the hot break will not be as good as when using treated sparge water
• the fermentation: when fermenting the yeast will decrease the pH. This goes better when the pH is already half there

 

[Sandimas]

An alternative view.

I used to measure it and adjust my water, but now I don't: grain is cheap so a slight drop-off in efficiency won't cost a lot. I still make great beer. Interesting to read the above about chill haze as I get a half-decent hot-break but do still get chill haze, so maybe I'll start doing it again. I only stopped because I ran out of pH paper. But I'd put it in the "nice to have" category rather than "essential".

We had a little homebrew club at work and it made me realise just how different all us brewers are, different motivators: some want the cheapest brew, some want the best possible brew and are prepared to go to the ends of the earth to get it. I'm somewhere in the middle, I want good beer but I don't want a very complex process.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Is it the sort of thing where the effort involved isn't worth the gains on a homebrew scale?

If it is worth it, are there better acids for lowering pH or does it not matter?

If you have hard water then it matters a lot, but if you're ending up at 5.6 without adjustment then you've probably got pretty soft water and you're in the territory of what British cycling call "marginal gains" - 5-10% better may not make a big difference in itself, but if you do several things that each make your beer 5-10% better, then they all add up to a significant improvement.

The traditional acid in British brewing is AMS (fka CRS) which is a mix of sulphuric and hydrochloric acids so contributes sulphate and chloride ions; USians are nervous of such things and so tend to use phosphoric or lactic - the latter does have a taste threshold so you can't use too much of it - and so homebrew discussion online tends to focus on phosphoric or lactic even though you're arguably better off with AMS/CRS.

 

[531Man]

The traditional acid in British brewing is AMS (fka CRS) which is a mix of sulphuric and hydrochloric acids so contributes sulphate and chloride ions; USians are nervous of such things and so tend to use phosphoric or lactic acids.

Being a British chemist, I prefer to use Hydrofluoric acid, and the resultant beer is also good for your teeth enamel.

But I do find when handling the neat acid that it keeps dissolving my glassware,
Then my skin...
And bones....
And worktop....
And tile flooring.

 

[jceg316]

Thanks everyone for your input, it's given me plenty to think about and after measuring and adjusting pH of the last 2 brews, it's actually no effort and am interested to see what the outcome for both is. One of the brews is a Belgian dark tripel and the other is a stout. I didn't actually have to adjust the stout mash pH because the dark malts brought the pH down to 5.45. I think that is fine as it is and trying to bring the pH down by .05 would have been more trouble than it's worth!

I also started adjusting the pH of my sparge water, to around 5,5.

I didn't think of testing the sparge water but will try this from the next brew as well. I do condition the water so it will be interesting to see if I condition it right.

when fermenting the yeast will decrease the pH. This goes better when the pH is already half there

I'm taking an educated guess that by providing a pH closer to what the yeast "wants" it makes for happier yeast? Is this a bit like when using lactobacillus for a kettle sour it helps to reduce pH to 3.4 make the environment better for the lacto?

If you have hard water then it matters a lot, but if you're ending up at 5.6 without adjustment then you've probably got pretty soft water and you're in the territory of what British cycling call "marginal gains" - 5-10% better may not make a big difference in itself, but if you do several things that each make your beer 5-10% better, then they all add up to a significant improvement.

The traditional acid in British brewing is AMS (fka CRS) which is a mix of sulphuric and hydrochloric acids so contributes sulphate and chloride ions; USians are nervous of such things and so tend to use phosphoric or lactic - the latter does have a taste threshold so you can't use too much of it - and so homebrew discussion online tends to focus on phosphoric or lactic even though you're arguably better off with AMS/CRS.

I actually have very hard water and 5.6 is after adding CRS to my mash water, I guess I'm not adding enough! I do agree that by making a few smaller changes it will add up, and feel like I've been a bit complacent towards brewing the past few months, so looking again at my process and adding in these small changes.

 

[Griff097]

Being a British chemist, I prefer to use Hydrofluoric acid, and the resultant beer is also good for your teeth enamel.

But I do find when handling the neat acid that it keeps dissolving my glassware,
Then my skin...
And bones....
And worktop....
And tile flooring.

Apart from that it's fine though

 

[531Man]

Apart from that it's fine though

And my tooth enamel is like tungsten.
I do have some AMS(CRS) for when I am doing more delicate modification, though.

 

[moto748]

Being a British chemist, I prefer to use Hydrofluoric acid, and the resultant beer is also good for your teeth enamel.

But I do find when handling the neat acid that it keeps dissolving my glassware,
Then my skin...
And bones....
And worktop....
And tile flooring.

Wuss!

Lysergic is the way to go!

 

[Subtle Duck]

Wuss!

Lysergic is the way to go!

Would definitely be an interesting beer. But would it work to bring down PH? Or would it need vast quantities???

 

[bobukbrewer]

I biab full volume (32 litres) for a 22 litre brew. 20 ml of AMS added as my water is quite hard. And I hydrate my yeast. And I bottle in 4 to 6 days. Full mash SMASH beers.
Struggling to get enough flavour and aroma. Experimenting with strained hop tea added on day 3 of fermentation.. And cutting down on drinkning in January.

 

[samale]

I biab full volume (32 litres) for a 22 litre brew. 20 ml of AMS added as my water is quite hard. And I hydrate my yeast. And I bottle in 4 to 6 days. Full mash SMASH beers.
Struggling to get enough flavour and aroma. Experimenting with strained hop tea added on day 3 of fermentation.. And cutting down on drinkning in January.

Why do you bottle so soon

 

[bobukbrewer]

activity has stopped and I see no scientific reason why bottling in 2 litre PET bottles is different to leaving a further 8 days in primary. bottle conditioned = a little bit of yeast remaining in contact with the beer until I open the bottle

 

[Madhouse]

Slightly off topic as it's probably not your water. If you want to up your aroma and flavour make your hop additions later in the boil and do a dry hop. You will have to wait longer though as that's usually added in secondary and requires 3-4 days. For me that's usually day 10/11 for day 14 bottling.
Of course you could go down the route of using hop extracts but I've no experience of them myself.

Back to water & PH, I've just started looking into this, I don't think I've had and issues with brews because of my hard water (262mg of carbonate) but I'm curious as to how it'll affect both efficiency and the final beer as I've never tested PH let alone treated the water to suit the profile of my beer! Just had delivery of all I need so the next brew will be a bit of a learning curve.