Thanks. Yea Paul at Barley Bottom has been great.BarnsleyBrewer wrote:Yeh, good luck with your brewing, I can also well recommend Barley Bottom ingredients!
John
Just to check I have everything I need
-
MightyMouth
-
ade1865
-
Witchfinder General
-
llannige
You must buy something shiny....you must buy something shiny....Witchfinder General wrote:I have to ask why people use PH strips for brewing? I've never used them and I have to ask if people 3000 years ago used them? I've done at least 40 mash brews in the past 5 years using the most basic equipment. But every time I get on this forum I start to believe I need something more.
Obviously you can brew beer without using any modern technology, but some people like mucking about, that's all.
-
Witchfinder General
Yes I know that's just how I feel. In fact I keep thinking I'm missing out on something and must go and buy something else. But just to ask, why do you need PH strips? I know from my Chemistry lessons at school they were used to test for Acid or Alkaline in a solution. But what could you do about it if your brew was too acid? Add more water perhaps, then that would affect the origianl gravity. Someone tell me quick.-
fivetide
You can add solution called PH Up and PH Down. I used a strip on my first brew to find out the acidity of my water and both times to check the mash was in the 5.2 region, but I probably won't bother again until I get some adverse effect that someone on the forum believes might be attributed to imbalanced mash PH.
I got hundreds of strips for about £1.50 on eBay though so it was worth it just to tinker a bit.
The "they didn't do that in the old days, why bother now" theory is sound in principal, but I'm not so sure 'their' beers were necessarily all that great when they brewed without hops round the back of some stables in open vats with pigeons roosting overhead etc...
You 'can' do everything like they did 500 years ago, but then again, they had appalling life expectancy, didn't they! I guess the biggest factor was that you were more likely to get a bad tum and head than cholera if you drank fermented beer rather than water.
I got hundreds of strips for about £1.50 on eBay though so it was worth it just to tinker a bit.
The "they didn't do that in the old days, why bother now" theory is sound in principal, but I'm not so sure 'their' beers were necessarily all that great when they brewed without hops round the back of some stables in open vats with pigeons roosting overhead etc...
You 'can' do everything like they did 500 years ago, but then again, they had appalling life expectancy, didn't they! I guess the biggest factor was that you were more likely to get a bad tum and head than cholera if you drank fermented beer rather than water.
-
MightyMouth
-
MightyMouth
The only reason I bought PH strips is just to see what my mash PH is. I probably don't need them or the 5.2 stabilizer but I hate not having something that I find I do need later.Witchfinder General wrote:I have to ask why people use PH strips for brewing? I've never used them and I have to ask if people 3000 years ago used them? I've done at least 40 mash brews in the past 5 years using the most basic equipment. But every time I get on this forum I start to believe I need something more.
-
MightyMouth
You could add 5.2 stabiliser or not as you see fit, as I understand it there are other more complicated things you could do to bring the PH to around 5.3 but I dont know what they are off hand.Witchfinder General wrote:But what could you do about it if your brew was too acid? Add more water perhaps, then that would affect the origianl gravity. Someone tell me quick.
Yeah, mash pH is what it's all about.
If you have no problems, there's no need to bother, but if you have hazes, too much or insufficient residual sweetness or lack of body in your beer, it's worth checking that mash pH isn't to blame.
If it's wrong, it's often down to your water and suitable treatment can rectify the situation.
If you have no problems, there's no need to bother, but if you have hazes, too much or insufficient residual sweetness or lack of body in your beer, it's worth checking that mash pH isn't to blame.
If it's wrong, it's often down to your water and suitable treatment can rectify the situation.
-
Witchfinder General
Sounds just like my breweryfivetide wrote:Y
The "they didn't do that in the old days, why bother now" theory is sound in principal, but I'm not so sure 'their' beers were necessarily all that great when they brewed without hops round the back of some stables in open vats with pigeons roosting overhead etc...
When I did a tour of the old Ridleys brewery in Essex, they fermented their beer in an open tank. There were spiders hanging over the brew like yoyos, Mice sitting on the edge of the tank reading books and frogs sitting on the bubbles on the top of the liquor.-
Parp
