Very low pH on a Porter - fixing?

[eamonnfoley]

You are very likely not measuring the pH properly. Your beer would be undrinkably awful after a mash pH=4.4. It may not even ferment. Dark malts would not do that alone. Strips are not very accurate. Get a meter if your looking to play with pH. Your beer is probably turning out ok because the pH is falling into a decent range naturally.

 

[Dunkelbrau]

The ph as stated would have read at room temp below 7 because of atmospheric co2, once heated to strike temp, it would have been higher.

Send me your exact grain bill so we can see ratios of dark to light and roughly work out what the ph would be given the other info.

If your water has minimal ions then you do need to add them back.

 

[mr_wibble]

I drag the low-range litmus paper through a little puddle of wort until it's saturated (seconds). It's sitting on a white plate. How can I get that wrong
AND in my defence, pH tests on other beers without dark malts read OK.

Here's the grist:

Lightly Smoked Robust Porter

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 31.09 l
Post Boil Volume: 26.82 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 22.00 l
Bottling Volume: 19.16 l
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 32.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.2 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.59 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 62.4 %
0.47 kg Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.1 %
0.42 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.3 %
0.42 kg Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.3 %
0.38 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.6 %
0.29 kg Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 6 5.0 %
0.19 kg Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 7 3.3 %
29.57 g Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 8 14.7 IBUs
17.74 g Willamette [7.10 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 10.2 IBUs
17.74 g Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] - Boil 15.0 Hop 10 4.4 IBUs
18.26 g Willamette [7.10 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0 Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
9.13 g Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] - Steep/Whi Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
0.8 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 13 -

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Thats a lot of black patent malt

 

[Dunkelbrau]

So your PH with the addition of Calcium Carbonate (and going by you saying your water has nothing else in it mineral wise) would have come out at 5.5 at room temperature. Thats pretty good, either your water is contaminated, you rested at low temps for too long, or your PH strips are not reading correctly.

Just buy a cheap PH meter from china and calibrate it every time you use it (each day you use it). I had some terrible luck with the strips.

 

[ricardo]

Interesting. What are the rules for amounts and any special way to dissolve it needed?

i use the bru'n water spreadsheet

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/home/files

you have to be very careful when using it, a little goes a long way