Water treatment experiment

[darrenw]

Hi,
I have it kegged up and conditioning, I'll decant a couple of bottles for the meeting on Monday, Since the experiment I have calibrated my ph meter and found it to be .4 ph over, so we may have added a little too much acid?
D

[I_used_to_brew]

I've just mashed in with Bristol tap water.

Water prep was to bring to 80C with 1 Campden tablet per 25 litres and a some Epsom salts yesterday evening. Sulphates to reduce off flavours from large hop additions, Campden and semi-boil to reduce Chlorine. Bristol tap water can have a strong whiff of Chlorine about it some days.

Grist of 95% pale malt and 5% Munich.

Water pH 7.0
Mash pH 5.2

These readings are the same every time.

I don't normally bother with measuring pH, but thought I would check just for fun.

So, Bristol brewers, Bristol tap water is fine for brewing without fiddling around with acids.

[darrenw]

I've just mashed in with Bristol tap water.

Water prep was to bring to 80C with 1 Campden tablet per 25 litres and a some Epsom salts yesterday evening. Sulphates to reduce off flavours from large hop additions, Campden and semi-boil to reduce Chlorine. Bristol tap water can have a strong whiff of Chlorine about it some days.

Grist of 95% pale malt and 5% Munich.

Water pH 7.0
Mash pH 5.2

These readings are the same every time.
Well my water is 7.3 sparge water should be 6, agree that not much needs to be done to it, but think for hoppier beers it could need a little reducing...

I don't normally bother with measuring pH, but thought I would check just for fun.

So, Bristol brewers, Bristol tap water is fine for brewing without fiddling around with acids.

[I_used_to_brew]

I've just mashed in with Bristol tap water.

Water prep was to bring to 80C with 1 Campden tablet per 25 litres and a some Epsom salts yesterday evening. Sulphates to reduce off flavours from large hop additions, Campden and semi-boil to reduce Chlorine. Bristol tap water can have a strong whiff of Chlorine about it some days.

Grist of 95% pale malt and 5% Munich.

Water pH 7.0
Mash pH 5.2

These readings are the same every time.

Well my water is 7.3 sparge water should be 6, agree that not much needs to be done to it, but think for hoppier beers it could need a little reducing...

I'm not sure that you really need sparge water to be pH 6.0. If you are thinking about Tannin extraction then it's probably not an issue. The mash will have a pH of 5.2 and, more importantly, a huge buffering effect, more so if you have a fairly wet mash. The pH is unlikely to rise to a point where Tanin extraction is a problem and, unlike commercial brewers, we're not aiming to screw every last percentage of efficiency out of the system. It's only at the extremes of over sparging that the pH might just drop to a troublesome level. But, not a problem on a domestic level.

[I_used_to_brew]

Final wort pH post boil is 5.3 for this brew.

No drama.