# Astringency In Beer - How To Determine Mash Ph



## The Gas Man (29/2/12)

I have recently brewed my first attempt at an amber ale, and first tastings indicate that the beer is very astringent (tea like dry flavour).

Mash temps were exactly as per beersmith aim (about 68C).
Mash time was 1hr, then 15 min batch sparge.

I have read from Palmers "How to Brew" that the 2 most common factors affecting astringency are:
1) Oversparing.
2) Mash pH exceeding 6.0

The book also indicates that grain profile determines the mash pH and that salts may be reqired to adjust the mash pH.

Could someone please give me some advice on how to predict what the mash pH will be? (Does Beersmith have this functionality?).


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## peas_and_corn (29/2/12)

You need a pH meter, because there are too many variables.

Astringency can also be caused by overly hot sparge water, what temp was your sparge?

Cheers,
Dave


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## QldKev (29/2/12)

The Gas Man said:


> I have recently brewed my first attempt at an amber ale, and first tastings indicate that the beer is very astringent (tea like dry flavour).
> 
> Mash temps were exactly as per beersmith aim (about 68C).
> Mash time was 1hr, then 15 min batch sparge.
> ...




Go to my website qldkev.net

Under homebrew/How To/Water Chemistry
I have some notes, and a link to a handy spreadsheet, EZ water calc 
Plug in all the known numbers and it works it out for you. 

Also buy a test meter such as
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Aquarium-pH-PEN...=item4ab2ae16b8 
And then you can also check what you actually hit to update your records and know how to tune it better next time.

As peas_and_corn said, what was your sparge temp,
and did you heat the grain at any stage, if so what was the process



QldKev


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## The Gas Man (29/2/12)

peas_and_corn said:


> You need a pH meter, because there are too many variables.
> 
> Astringency can also be caused by overly hot sparge water, what temp was your sparge?
> 
> ...



Mash and Sparge water was about 75C. No further heat was added. This brough the mash temp to about 68C which was the aim temp.


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## The Gas Man (29/2/12)

QldKev said:


> Go to my website qldkev.net
> 
> Under homebrew/How To/Water Chemistry
> I have some notes, and a link to a handy spreadsheet, EZ water calc
> ...


Thanks Kev
I plugged the figures into the spreadsheet and it determined that the calculated pH was going to be 5.48 (which is right in the middle of the range 5.4-5.6). Does this suggest that the I should rule out pH being a factor in the astringent taste?


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## peas_and_corn (29/2/12)

Probably.

How extensive is your recirculation? You could have gotten bits of grain into the boil.


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## [email protected] (29/2/12)

The Gas Man said:


> Mash and Sparge water was about 75C. No further heat was added. This brough the mash temp to about 68C which was the aim temp.



Another solution is to pre adjust the PH of your sparge water to 6 with something like phosphoric acid.
There will still be some buffering or even further lowering of the PH from the grains so you will be safe from 
tannin extraction even at high temps.

As mentioned you can get a PH meter or an even cheaper option and more accurate than cheapo digital PH meters are the liquid PH test kits. But if you have the cash splash out on a good quality digital probe.


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## troopa (29/2/12)

QLDKev thanks for that link .. just got one of those meters 
Ive just done my first brew with ph5.2 added and really should do more research i think 

Thanks again


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