I like it… pouring beer at 8:30AM here in OH!
Yep; Time for work! :lol:
It was still a good data point. I expected that it might have been on the high end, but its been a long time since I’ve brewed a pale beer with a pH that high.
You make a very valid point about all of this water chemistry stuff: If you are in the ball-park, the beer is going to be drinkable. Its that fine-tuning that moves a beer from good to great. Your finding about IPA pH target is in line with Colin K’s.
So there you go, I’ve done 5.2 and 5.6 and plenty in between. At this point I would say I like 5.4 the best. I cannot imagine lower or higher would be any better.
That’s exactly the way I see it, water chem and pH can make a good beer great. That being said, odds are it is the sum of all aspects of the brew that make it world class. Probably the only area I haven’t gone medieval on is yeast. I simply cannot imagine a yeast starter or O2 injection is gonna work magic… BUT I will try an english strain and see where that takes me.
Huh, well smooth is good sometimes, I guess. That’s how you want darker beers to be.
Agreed, go higher for darker ales. I think 5.5-5.8 (higher) would be a good target for english ales. Which is supported by Briggs an English Brewer. Recently picked up a 4 pack of Murphy’s and the wife and I were enamored with it. It had been a long time since we had it. Anyway, we agreed I need a stout in the queue. I am going to target 5.7 for it.
Martin, any suggestions as to inputting flaked barley in Bru’n water? For my experience and looking online it appears that flaked barley does have an impact on pH more than pale malt. Not entirely sure I am using it in the stout but I am dreaming of a NGP…
[quote=“Beersk”][quote=“mabrungard”][quote=“Beersk”]
Nice. I actually brewed a 2 gallon batch of hefeweizen last night and targeted a mash pH of 5.5. that may be higher than recommended for a hefe but we’ll see.[/quote]
This is a style that really needs a low pH to help brighten the flavors and add that tartness that makes it refreshing.
Living in the middle of the Alkalinity Belt (aka: Midwest), I’ve judged hundreds of Hefe’s that were brewed with too much alkalinity in the water and no acidification to take care of it. They are all dull and lifeless. Next time, try a pH target of 5.2 and always use lactic acid. It will make a big difference.[/quote]
I suppose so. I don’t know if I want the tartness, though. Weihenstephaner Hefe doesn’t have the tartness. I’d describe it as a very soft, clove/banana character. I tried a sample of the hefe today, it’s at 1.020 and I’m rousing it a bit everyday, it tastes very doughy and clovey. I like it. I think it’ll be good once bottled and hopefully it’ll come down to 1.012. But it was Panama Jack’s Bavarian hefe yeast, so it’ll likely finish much higher than it should…ugh. Avoid any yeast from Mangrove Jacks. It’s sh!te.[/quote]
So now that I’m drinking this beer, I’m liking it. It tastes a bit softer and not as tart as usual, which is what I want. It stopped at 1.018 though (stupid a$$ Mangrove Jack BS yeast…), but tastes good. I could never EVER get Mangrove Jacks yeast to attenuate properly, no matter what I did. I must be doing something wrong…
Anyway, so I’ve been wondering if my pH is really ending up a lot lower than what Bru’n water is predicting for me, as a lot of my beers seem thin at times, if not a little tart. I don’t remember this ever being the case before I even messed with my water. I might be over adjusting my water, I’m thinking.
I can definitely relate to “too much of a good thing”. I think everyone has a tendency to use new tools to take thing to extremes which is why I created this thread. In the end, I think there is a combination of mash/KO pH and the acid production of a yeast strain that a brewer must balance to find the sweet spot that best suits the BREWER. I think those of us pushing the envelope are now researching the ability to predict how much certain strains of yeast drop the pH. It has been identified that chico is a low acid producer and one must take that into account in order to get the beer in the zone. What I can tell you is that this IPA @ 5.6 FADED FAST! No joke the pH is a key player in flavor stability.
Interesting. I’m unaware of the flavor stability aspect of wort and beer pH, but it certainly is possible. I’ll have to keep this in mind.
I like your emphasis on how the BREWER wants that beer to end up. That is the primary deciding factor. However, having snippets of data that help identify how our adjustments effect the final beer are valuable. I’m hoping that brewers enjoy the ability to perform and monitor these ‘fine tunings’.
This is an interesting thread. I’d be really surprised if a mash/preboil pH difference of just a few tenths of a pH unit would amount to a difference in flavor that would stand-up to a triangle test. In contrast, it seems like the yeast effect on pH (and other factors) would play a much larger role. That said, I eagerly await reading more of your experiments and research.
I believe it would. There are flavor extraction and hop utilization factors which are wort pH related and they would echo into the final beer. This is regardless of what the yeast take the final beer pH to.
