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Low Mash pH

Mashing
#1

Hello to all. I’ve taken nearly a year off from brewing and my mind’s a bit rusty.

I made a 16.5 gal recipe of an APA/cream ale yesterday. 20# MO, 5# quick grits, 3# C60.

24 gallons of water total. Added appx 12 grams of Gypsum and 6 grams of CaCl2 to it. 1 gram of Vit C to deal with the chlorine. Baseline water with less than 10 ppm of all ions.

Checked pH with 4 yr old colorpHast strips viewed in bright sunlight. I got a pH of 4.9 of both the mash and wort. Got 82% BHE which is my norm. Batch sparged. Kettle had good break.

What effects Will the low pH have on the final product?

Iirc, the strips read .2 lower than actual mah pH at room temp?

#2

[quote=“drf255”]Hello to all. I’ve taken nearly a year off from brewing and my mind’s a bit rusty.

I made a 16.5 gal recipe of an APA/cream ale yesterday. 20# MO, 5# quick grits, 3# C60.

24 gallons of water total. Added appx 12 grams of Gypsum and 6 grams of CaCl2 to it. 1 gram of Vit C to deal with the chlorine. Baseline water with less than 10 ppm of all ions.

Checked pH with 4 yr old colorpHast strips viewed in bright sunlight. I got a pH of 4.9 of both the mash and wort. Got 82% BHE which is my norm. Batch sparged. Kettle had good break.

What effects Will the low pH have on the final product?

Iirc, the strips read .2 lower than actual mah pH at room temp?[/quote]

Two issues: Without knowing the brewing ion profile of your water supply it cannot be inferred that your water salt addition was correct. Also the accuracy of the pH strips is often in question. That said, it doesn’t sound like a big problem. RDWHAHB.

#3

[quote=“drf255”]
Checked pH with 4 yr old colorpHast strips viewed in bright sunlight. I got a pH of 4.9 of both the mash and wort.

What effects Will the low pH have on the final product?

Iirc, the strips read .2 lower than actual mah pH at room temp?[/quote]
The strips read 0.3 pH units low, so your actual pH was probably close to 5.2. That’s on the low end of the target, but should be fine.

#4

does vitamin c act similarly to potassium metabisulfite or sodium metabisulphate to chemically remove chlorine from tap water?

#5

I had a similar situation as you; took time off from brewing and now recently back into it. I was also having any issue with my Colorphast strips. One possible conclusion for me was that, if not stored properly, those strips will no longer read accurately, i.e. they have some sort of shelf life. The reason I think this is that regardless of what color beer I made, from dark brown through golden yellew, I was getting the exact same color on the strips and they were all in the 4.8 range. Now, as a previous poster suggested I could have been good when you account for the .3 difference, but I highly doubt my brewing skill is that good that I am getting he exact same pH every time.

#6

Yes for Chlorine, but IIRC, not Chloramine.

#7

The beer came out perfect. I forgot to add Whirlfloc, but after adding gelatin to a 33* secondary, the beer fell crystal clear in 3 days. I guess my pH wasn’t that off. Time to buy new strips.

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