Raising your mash Ph

Rabmaxwell · Jul 21, 2009

Hello has anyone with very soft water have experience at raising your mash Ph as i am trying to get from my normal low 4.9 to 5.3 mash Ph.Last brew i changed my C03 to 40ppm but i still got a 4.9 mash Ph.This is the values i added but i added both Calcium Carbonate additions to the mash.

( Mash Addition )

( Boiler Addition Click pictures to enlarge )
The brews colour was calculated at 10 EBC i thought 40ppm of C03 would have been enough.Does anyone know how many more ppm of Co3 i should try the next time to get me in the ballpark.Cheers

Aleman · Jul 21, 2009

I would have thought that a pale beer would be fine with 40ppm carbonate . . . Certainly I go for around 100ppm when making dark beers, and my last pale beer with 25ppm alkalinity ended up with a pH of 5.5.

I guess the issue could well be, did all that chalk dissolve by the time you measured your mash pH? . . . There are some mineral waters out there (Morrisons Own label spring water in a bottle with a blue label) that have quite high bicarbonate levels (reports 280ppm) that you could use to mix with your own water to get where you want to be. . . . But watch out for the elevated sodium levels . . . you don't want to be much higher than 50ppm sodium if you can help it.

Rabmaxwell · Jul 22, 2009

Hello Aleman i used Vinoferm Ph strips can you recommend another make to try against the Vinoferm ones incase they are giving inaccurate readings .Cheers :thumb:

Vossy1 · Jul 22, 2009

I've found Ph strips to be dodgy at best, especially as they age, giving lower readings.
Must get a meter of decent quality, any recommendations while we're on the subject...ish :thumb:

steve_flack · Jul 22, 2009

Aleman said:
There are some mineral waters out there (Morrisons Own label spring water in a bottle with a blue label) that have quite high bicarbonate levels (reports 280ppm) that you could use to mix with your own water to get where you want to be. . . . But watch out for the elevated sodium levels . . . you don't want to be much higher than 50ppm sodium if you can help it.

I seem to recall that the Morrisons own brand bottled water has quite high sodium as well as bicarbonate (which is odd as the chloride was fairly low). Maybe I'm getting my waters mixed up. I just get Tesco's Ashbeck (very soft) anyway as I can get well 'ard water from just turning on a tap!

Aleman · Jul 22, 2009

Vossy1 said:
I've found Ph strips to be dodgy at best, especially as they age, giving lower readings.
Must get a meter of decent quality, any recommendations while we're on the subject...ish :thumb:

I treated myself to an Oakton pH Meter Kit for Christmas and My Birthday last year. I'm well impressed with the kit, but when I have to replace the probe I'll go for a combined pH and temp probe rather than the seperate one. . . . The kit is better value as you get Loads of buffer solutions etc.

steve_flack said:
Aleman said:

Morrisons Own label spring water in a bottle with a blue label) that have quite high bicarbonate levels (reports 280ppm) . . . . But watch out for the elevated sodium levels . . . you don't want to be much higher than 50ppm sodium if you can help it.

Click to expand...

I seem to recall that the Morrisons own brand bottled water has quite high sodium as well as bicarbonate (which is odd as the chloride was fairly low). Maybe I'm getting my waters mixed up. I just get Tesco's Ashbeck (very soft) anyway as I can get well 'ard water from just turning on a tap!

Rab and I can get well soft out of the tap . . . its a bit like the Graham Norton of Waters really. What I was suggesting was to use say 5 litres of Morrisons Spring Water in 25L which would boost the Bicarb to ~50ppm but would also increase the sodium only by 16 . . . which in this case is fine.

I must admit that I do find the composition 'odd' I am wondering if they are boosting the bicarbonate using sodium hydrogen carbonate (Sodium Bicarb) which is another alternative to Chalk . . . I am wary of using it as I don't like artificially increasing sodium levels too much (A Max of 50ppm IMO is really the upper limit)

Rabmaxwell · Jul 22, 2009

Thank's for the help i will give 40ppm of chalk in the mash another go first i have a newer batch of Ph papers that i will try.As for the Ph meter kit it look's very nice but i couldn't justify paying that for something that i would hardly ever use :)