Learning the ph

[hooper80]

Hey guys. I'm a all grain brewer and have a 3v Herms set up. It's time I started learning to control the ph in my water. At the moment I and using filtered town water in Noosa. Apparently our water is pretty good. But it's time to take the next step. Any advice?

 

[good4whatAlesU]

G'day hp80

Just started doing this myself. I got a little cheap pH meter from Clever brewing. Some guys use pH test strips, they are available online or from you're LHBS and are disposable (require no calibration).

Once you know your pH you can adjust accordingly (lots of threads on that - use the forum search function).

Cheers

 

[SBOB]

I'd start with a water report and play around with one of the water calculator/spreadsheets like bru'n water

Use it to get an idea on what the 'maths' says you might need to do. Then you can either try it and see, or get a ph meter to back up its 'calculated' ph adjustments

Plenty of homebrewers do water/ph adjustments without a ph meter, in the aim to get 'close enough' to the right water profile/ph

 

[Jack of all biers]

Like SBOB said, first step read Bru'n.

Then read it again,

Then get your water report,

Then research and try and understand your water and the complexities that Bru'n brings up

Then get your head around it,

Then slowly do the things you understand, one at a time to your water.

It's like the 12 step program

 

[Mardoo]

The Brew Strong four-part series on water is the best concise summation I've found for a beginner. I'll see if I can track down the link.

EDIT: Here they are -
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post453/
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post454/
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post455/
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post456/

 

[alimac23]

I'm interested in this too, I've been brewing on the grainfather for a year now and have never paid any attention to water, I think it's time to start taking a look and making small adjustments.

 

[abe max]

I got a Brisbane water report and use the EZ water calc spreadsheet, using that it turns out that for most brews I need 6 grams of Gypsum, 6 grams of Calc Chloride and 100 grams of Acidulated malt.

I haven't actually measured the ph but I can say for sure that since I've started doing this my beer is a lot better tasting with no astringency.

 

[Coodgee]

My advice would be to get a decent pH meter.It should have two point calibration, +/- 0.05 accuracy and two decimal place precision. They are not cheap. How can you possibly know what you need to adjust if you don't have an accurate reading of the current pH? The water reports for Brisbane give quite broad ranges for each parameter, so I don't see that it's useful as much more than just a rough guide. Noosa might be different I don't know. By the way I just spent the weekend kayaking in the Noosa Everglades. Lovely spot. Full of catfish though

 

[abe max]

How can you possibly know what you need to adjust if you don't have an accurate reading of the current pH? The water reports for Brisbane give quite broad ranges for each parameter, so I don't see that it's useful as much more than just a rough guide.

This is true, but even as a rough guide it has increased the quality of my brew, if you make the effort to accurately measure it I'm sure it is going to be better again. I suffer from closed wallet syndrome so I'll keep going like this until something changes and I'm forced to properly measure it.

 

[Rocker1986]

While I do agree with measuring the pH before really getting serious about adjusting it properly, I don't think the water reports are as rough of a guide as they might seem.

The reason the ranges appear to be broad for Brisbane water is rainfall in the dam catchment areas. There is limestone everywhere out there and when it rains substantially on it, it ends up in the water supply and causes it to go temporarily harder. If there's no decent rain for a long time like this summer has been like then the water profile stays pretty stable. You might have 20 weeks in a row where it all reads pretty much the same and then a random spike; it doesn't mean the water profile is all over the place though.

With the rain last week the water might be a little bit harder for a short while, but then it will return to its normal state. Meddo posted a chart last year of water profile testing that contained weekly analysis reports over a 3 month period or more. Most of them were pretty much the same readings, with a random week where the numbers jumped. I suspect there was rain out west shortly before that week's analysis was done.

My dad was an industrial chemist back in the late 60s/early 70s, and they used to test the tap water regularly in the lab... exactly the same thing happened after decent rain over the catchments.

 

[Stouter]

Local knowledge goes a long way.
Water is the next step for me in this learning curve in brewing. My local water source is a groundwater aquifer, treated with chlorine and aeration. I already filter it through a single step filter. The taste difference for drinking water after this is noticeable, but I can see I'll need to dig deeper for that elusive perfect brew.