Beginner questions

[Rfox]

Hi,
I'm new to brewing, I have been gathering information for a few weeks now.
The issue is, all the recipes and video tutorials I find don't go into much detail. They are catered to experienced brewers more than beginners leaving me with holes in my knowledge.

I have a couple questions.
Do I need a ph stabilizer, and if so what part of the brewing process do I add it? Do I add it at the same time as I am building the water profile from distilled water?

Are there any recipes for hazy ipa that cover every little step including building water profile?

Thanks for reading

 

[YAPN]

Palmer's 'How To Brew' served me well at the beginning. The latest edition may cover hazy ipa's. Don't brew them myself.

 

[Lix]

You dont say whether you are brewing with grain or extract, or if you have brewed a few already. Yes you can make better beer if you do manage the pH but you can make good beer without worrying too much about pH. Focus on ensuring your water quality is reasonable (remove the chlorine/chloramine if you can) and temperature control for the ferment and enjoy the product. Continue to do the research (John Palmer is a great start).

Not everybody will think this way but for my money - do you need a pH stabiliser as a beginner brewer, in my opinion no. Do you need to sweat over your water profile as a beginner brewer, in my opinion no. When you have your process down pat and you are making consistent beer and you have a few brews under your belt, then make a concious bid for correct pH and understanding the impact of water profile and appreciate the impact it has on the beer (it is noticeable).

Alex

 

[dough]

Hi,
I'm new to brewing,

I have a couple questions.
Do I need a ph stabilizer, and if so what part of the brewing process do I add it? Do I add it at the same time as I am building the water profile from distilled water?

Are there any recipes for hazy ipa that cover every little step including building water profile?

Thanks for reading

Hi Rfox,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on starting brewing. I hope you find it a rewarding hobby.

In general recipes tend to be a summary of the information a brewer needs to make a particular beer, so they usually don't go into every little step. For most brewers this would present a lot of unnecessary procedural information they would need to wade through to extract the info they need to make the beer on their own particular equipment and using their own particular methods.

If you're after a recipe and the exact procedure used to make that recipe so you can follow along brewing the same way with the intention of getting the same result, then I suggest looking for a video, perhaps of someones brewday. Preferably someone well regarded, like good reputable brewing shops, know good brewers - John Palmer of How to Brew Fame, Brew Your Own (BYO) magazine, etc.

A pH stabilizer is intended to be used in the mashing process to help keep the pH of the mash in a suitable range for the enzymes in the mash to work best at converting starches with the grain into sugars the yeast can ferment. If would be either added directly to the mash or to the water used in the mash. Most brewers don't use it, preferring to treat their mash water with discrete chemical stabilizers, like for example calcium ions, rather than the more generic approach of a pH stabilizer. Typically modern recipes include these discrete chemicals as part of the recipe.

Water profiles achieve two *main* objectives. The first is to help the pH be in a suitable range, rough 5.2 to 5.6, depending on the beer. The second is simply flavor, just like adding salt to your food. Discrete chemical additions allow the brewer a chance to adjust the flavor of the beer. Just like salt on food, flavor preferences vary. These days, good recipes usually also tell you about the water treatments needed to help the pH stay in range and to achieve the flavor the recipe's author is targeting. Keeping the pH in range is quite straight forward once you know the grains but the choice of chemicals used for the flavor is very much up for debate thought there are some broad guiding principles. As an example, in the Brew Your Own (BYO) article:

Brew Your Own - New England IPA

It's says:

This recipe uses reverse osmosis (RO) water. Add 1⁄4 tsp 10% phosphoric acid per 5 gallons
(19 L) of brewing water, or until water measures pH 5.5 at room temperature. Add 3⁄4 tsp.
calcium chloride (CaCl2) and 1⁄4 tsp. calcium sulfate (CaSO4) to the mash.

Note that "brewing water" here refers to the mash water and the sparge water.

These three additions are quite common for pale beers with the ratio and amounts of calcium chloride and calcium sulfate varying depending on the flavor profile the author is targeting.

To get started on Water treatment/profiles, as YAPN already suggested, I can also recommend John Palmer's "How to Brew", though I think he goes on too much about Residual Alkalinity which, in practice, you can skip. Everything I've written above and more is well covered by Palmer.

Another great Water resource and excellent tool is the spreadsheet by Martin Brungard, a professional brewing water consultant. His website, and the spreadsheet, have lots of info and dozens of prebuilt water profiles:

Bru'n Water by Martin Brungard

A question for you.
You mentioned you're a new brewer, very roughly what sort, and how many beers have you made so far and on what sort of equipment?

Cheers!
Rob

 

[dough]

You dont say whether you are brewing with grain or extract, or if you have brewed a few already. Yes you can make better beer if you do manage the pH but you can make good beer without worrying too much about pH. Focus on ensuring your water quality is reasonable (remove the chlorine/chloramine if you can) and temperature control for the ferment and enjoy the product. Continue to do the research (John Palmer is a great start).

Not everybody will think this way but for my money - do you need a pH stabiliser as a beginner brewer, in my opinion no. Do you need to sweat over your water profile as a beginner brewer, in my opinion no. When you have your process down pat and you are making consistent beer and you have a few brews under your belt, then make a concious bid for correct pH and understanding the impact of water profile and appreciate the impact it has on the beer (it is noticeable).

Alex

Yep, agree 100%, water profiles are something you worry about when you've got everything else sorted and your "tuning" recipes.

 

[MHB]

I do think a pH meter is a very good investment. pH stabiliser on the other hand, well if you can measure your pH and have some acid (I prefer Lactic Acid) it’s redundant. It is also far less effective at keeping the pH stable than some would suggest.

Make sure you have 100-150ppm of Calcium in your water and that the pH is in the target range. A little Zinc wouldn’t hurt, if you are using some yeast nutrient (not just DAP, yeast food!), it should contain some Zn, a little extra wouldnt hurt in distilled water.

Have a read of this from BYO Digging into the Hazy IPA, it’s a fairly good starting point.
Mark

 

[mcgarryb]

Personally I wouldn't worry about the pH when starting out. Keep it as simple as possible on your first brews until you become familiar with the process. Later you may want to start looking at pH, water profile etc. but on the other hand like me you may be more than happy with the brews you make with out getting too complicated.

 

[yankinoz]

Do extract brews first, not worrying about the water (except for dechlorination and sanitation) or pH, then go on to all grain or partial mash.

Note the wide difference in the above advice regarding all-grain brewing. There is an element of luck, depending in part on your water. I'll take the word of those who say they don't worry about pH or water adjustment, but this and other forums have many threads where problems or dissatisfactions were corrected in the ways MHB indicates.

There are also extract brewers who dilute extract and pitch without water or wort ever getting above 80 degrees. The risk of infection is very high

Personally, I have used the Brun water spreadsheet for years and stopped using my pH meter because I was in the target range every time. pH stabilisers have many former users who gave up on them. When they do work, they yield a pH that is too low, at least to my liking.

If you brew a variety of styles, the case for adjustment of salts becomes very strong. Soft water is great for pilsners. For many malty styles or IPAs you ideally want harder water, but between those different ratios of chloride to sulphate are ideal. The differences in final product won't likely cause you to dump a batch, but can be noticeable to any palate.

 

[Rfox]

Thanks guys