bru n water and additions

[paulg]

thanks wally brew
yes I BIAB and treated 38.9 litres.
I tested with both ph papers and ph meter freshly calibrated today and got about the colour of 5.0 on the papers.I retested at the end of the mash and got a reading of 5.3 .
strangely I got a hydrometer reading after boil of 1.035 exactly target.

[paulg]

question does the mash ph tend to rise during the mash time or had my first reading been taken before the ph had properly settled?

[Eric]

question does the mash ph tend to rise during the mash time or had my first reading been taken before the ph had properly settled?

No.
My early readings advised that if you got the intial conditions somewhere right, the mash process would take care of itself. That, to me, meant whatever the pH was at any time was what it should be provided you'd matched grains to the alkalinity and calcium present.
I find first runnings usually have a lower pH than a measurement taken shortly after the start.

[paulg]

just an update
the wort fermented out a bit high stopping at 1.016 after 2 weeks and after priming and casking and leaving for a week at 18c and 2 weeks at 12 c I have tried it.
the beer is clear but lacks any sort of distinct flavour neither hoppy or malty just dull.

I have had time to play a bit more with bru n water now and wonder

the recommended carbonate level for bitter seems to be around 30-50, my acid addition gave a minus number (-15 if I remember correctly)
I guess I should have only added enough acid to reduce the carbonate to 50 (this would have been about 10 ml not 15 as I used) and then added gypsum and calcium chloride to further reduce the mash ph .
my calcium level was 78 ppm from my water which although high for the bru n water targets is very low compared with the brupak website recommendation of 180-220ppm ,so I could afford to lower the ph with this and leave the carbonates higher at 50
is this correct thinking as I want to brew again over easter and am slightly disappointed with my first effort with phosphoric acid instead of CRS.

[mabrungard]

Paul, if the beer was pale, that level of alkalinity (carbonates) could easily have been too high and the resulting mash pH was also. High pH tends to produce 'dull' beer flavor. What style was that beer intended to be?

[paulg]

martin
the beer was an english bitter .I BIAB brew and used 38.9 litres liquor.my measured mash ph was low 4.9 (with freshly calibrated ph meter).I had set bru n water for 5.5ph
If you look back in post you can see I added 14.8 ml 75% phosphoric acid
table salt 1.9 gr
epsom salt 5.8 gr
I measured the liquor before brewing and got a 0 reading for carbonate (bru n water gave a minus number but I guess the hanna alkalinity test does not go below 0)


Ridleys IPA 5 gallon batch OG 1035 ABV 3.6% 30 units of colour

PIPKIN PALE MALT 2360 gms
CRYSTAL MALT 360 gms
TORRIFIED WHEAT 360 gms
CHOCOLATE MALT 10 gms
INVERT SUGAR 300 gms

HOPS boil time 90 minutes 35 units of bitterness

FUGGLES 28 gms
GOLDINGS 28 gms

Add 20 gms Styrian GOLDINGS last 15 minutes.

Yeast wlp0222 essex ale

thanks for your input
Paul

[Eric]

A picture is worth a thousand words they say, so wonder if this might encourage a few?



It was taken inside what was Ridley's brewery after it was bought and closed by Greene King.
The brewery started in 1842 and certainly that board was from long after that. I don't suppose there was any mains water there at that time, but I'll bet at least some of the wells were. To me that board would seem to date from when Ridley produced their IPA and it would appear they took their water very seriously.

Good luck Paul

[paulg]

I today am brewing again a bitter with a little over 4 kilos pale malt and 400gr crystal
bru n water predicted a mash ph 0f 5.4 having added 12 ml phosphoric acid (75%) and 4.2 gr gypsum and 4.2 gr cal chloride and .4 table salt to 41 litres water.

I checked mash ph after 15 minutes and it was 5.46 according to my meter ,so much more like it.
this time when setting up bru n water I used the acid to reduce the carbonate to where I wanted and then added gypsum and cal chloride to set the ratios sulphate/chloride ,this apears to be where I went wrong last time as I used the acid to get the ph I wanted and this drasticly lowered the carbonates and then added only epsom salt to increase the sulphate to chloride ratio.

I also think I used the wrong profile as I used the brown balanced one but the beer srm was in the amber range but of course I did not get anywhere near the suggested levels of minerals and was way lower on the carbonate

[paulg]

I have now completed 3 more brews after the first failure and all of them have given a mash ph very close to the bru n water prediction.
I dont know what happened with the first brew (maybe I over did the acid ,miss measured ?).
I now have confidence in the program to give accurate results
thanks Martin for your work
Paul