Questions on PH

[fury_tea]

I'm making a 100% pale malt brew, I'm aiming towards lager territory so want good conversion. I have a cheapo PH meter but no distilled water so it's not calibrated.

Beer Smith tells my my ph is going to be at around 5.8, which as far as I have read, seems quite high. I have lactic acid acid and according to BS it works out that I should add 6ml to get to 5.3.

Does this sound about right? Do I add it directly into the mash? Or just leave it?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Well you could make your own distilled water since you don't need much - find a way to suspend a big bowl inverted at an angle over a kettle/boiling water, to catch the steam and let it drip into another bowl. Or just buy the stuff that's sold for irons etc - or low mineral mineral water (Ashbeck, Volvic) will do as a first approximation.

The amount of acid depends on your water - I use really soft tap water and it only needs about 0.7ml of lactic to get it into mash range. Harder water will need more. Can't remember what my starting pH is but probably is in the 5.8-ish range from memory, so 6ml feels high unless you've got a lot of buffering ions. Where are you, do you have a water report (even the one from the water company website is a start?)

 

[Ben034]

Do you know the alkilinity of your water?

Have a read of this before tackling water treatment.

 

[Session]

I never found Beer Smith reliable when calculating my water additions - despite telling me I needed a specific number of ml of lactic acid this never matched up with my measured pH. This was a big part of the reason I made the switch to Brewfather which was much better and consistent with my meter readings. Try running the recipe in Brewfather and seeing what pH you get and how much acid additions it suggests, I think you’ll find it’s much more reliable.

 

[fury_tea]

Do you know the alkilinity of your water?

Have a read of this before tackling water treatment.

Yep I've been through all of that, got my water profile etc sorted.

My water is at mash temp now, should I just leave it or throw a few ml lactic in and hope for the best?

What's the worst that can happen?

 

[fury_tea]

I have some pH indicator strips, I know they're not ideal but might try those this time.

 

[Ben034]

I have some pH indicator strips, I know they're not ideal but might try those this time.

If you've adjusted the alkilinity as needed to suit the style I wouldn't worry too much about the PH. I had a cheap PH meter and found that the extra steps to calibrate every time was just not worth it to me. Having said that, it is worth testing the PH to confirm that your adjustments have worked and to learn the process. Once you've done this a number of times, you can start to trust the adjustments and that the PH will fall in roughly the correct range. I've used the 4.6-6PH test strips and foud them to good enough for my purposes. I prefered this rough confirmation to messing about with a PH meter.