Large yeast cake

That’s very alkaline water. People in LA, who are obsessed with alkaline water right now, would pay $10 for a 16oz bottle of that stuff. hahaha

With a pH that high you’re lucky your beer is even drinkable if you’re not acidifying your mash and sparge water. The only beers you could expect to make without water treatment are stouts. Even then you may not get into acceptable pH range for mash. Your off taste is almost certainly from tannins is you’re mashing with that water.

Get yourself some lactic acid and a pH meter or at the very least a copy of Brunwater to help you dial it in.

I just made a stout 2 weeks ago and it’s uniquely normal tasting lol…thanks ill give that a shot. Whats a good starting pH before addition of grains

Thats a great question… For my light colored brews, aim to 5.6- 5.8 . Then mash rest lays right around 5.2- 5.4.
Darker brews about 5.8- 6.3…
Lets say this will be a good range to start…
sneezles61

It all depends on the grain bill. You can’t acidify water alone and there’s no magic to it. It’s about the combination of the grain bill which will lower your pH some depending on how much dark grain there is. You have to acidify FOR the specific grain bill you’re using.

Download brunwater and read the water info section.

Suggested Reliable pH meter?

I have a milwaukee ph55. It’s cheap but has always worked well for me. First one lasted about 5 years. I now have a new one. There are probably better ones and sometimes I wish i had one with a long probe on a line but this works.

There’s probably a thread or two here with more info if you search for it.

To be honest I seldom use the meter anymore except to check that my water pH hasn’t changed or to check a final beer pH occasionally.

Entering your water data into brunwater and following it will get you spot on if your volumes and measures are accurate.

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I thought I saw Thermoworks has a pH meter… Worth a look… their products have been good for us…
Because I can’t manipulate this PC, I have to do my adjustments by trial and error… Today, I had a young college kid explain ml/L stuff… It doesn’t look too complicated… Time will tell as I practice on paper and she’ll come back and check to see if I understand… some of it…
Sneezles61

Just looked and yes thermoworks does have ph meters. I may have gotten the new one from them if I’d known. We have a collection of thermapens.

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