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HOMEBREW Digest #5032
HOMEBREW Digest #5032 Sun 16 July 2006
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
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Contents:
Portland beer thanks ("Grant Stott")
re: Mash pH ("Chad Stevens")
Trust thy yeast producer ("Chad Stevens")
Any brewers in the Palestine, Texas area? ("Bev D. Blackwood II")
Re: Mash pH ("Fredrik")
Palmer's nomograms (Fred L Johnson)
mash pH mess ("Jennifer Isenhour")
Re: Fixing carbonation in a bottled beer ("C.D. Pritchard")
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Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 15:33:40 +1000
From: "Grant Stott" <gstott at iprimus.com.au>
Subject: Portland beer thanks
G'day all,
as traffic is very light lately I would like to take this
opportunity to thank all those who offered suggestions several months
ago on beers for my brew buddy to bring back to Australia from Portland
Oregon.
We had several very enjoyable Friday evenings samlping the beers & found
to our pleasure that the American IPA that we have been brewing compared
very favorably to the IPA's he brought back.
If anyone knows we would like to know what hops are used in Stone IPA &
Full Sail IPA as we couldn't quite figure it out & have been
unsuccessful in our brief search on the web.
Also Jeff Renner if you are reading this thanks again for posting your
Pretzel recipe way back. My teenage daughter & I finally got around to
making some again after what must be about 3 years & they were great.
Had to settle for washing them down with IPA as I have not done a CAP
for nearly a year.
Regards,
Grant Stott
Victoria Australia
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 06:45:21 -0700
From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net>
Subject: re: Mash pH
>I have read in many places that a desirable mash pH is >in the range of
>5.2-5.5. However, in John Palmer's web publication...
>brewing liquor which target the range of pH 5.6-6.0.
I can't speak for John, (and what's nice about HBD, he'll probably pipe in!)
but for me, functionally, this has always been the early mash target pH.
The grain will take the pH down over time. Tough to quantify "early;" it's
somewhere between mixin' and mashin' and finally getting to where I can pour
my first beer of the morning. Later in the mash, the pH has settled in the
5.2-5.5 range.
Hope that helps,
Chad Stevens
QUAFF
San Diego
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 06:50:40 -0700
From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net>
Subject: Trust thy yeast producer
>British malts are readily available in the US and, if any of >the liquid
>yeast producers are to be believed, so are >British ale yeasts.
Trust me, they are to be believed (White Labs anyway).
Chad Stevens
QUAFF
San Diego
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 11:10:59 -0500
From: "Bev D. Blackwood II" <bdb2 at bdb2.com>
Subject: Any brewers in the Palestine, Texas area?
I was recently contacted by a brewer in Palestine, Texas and wanted
to see if there are any other brewers in that area who would like to
be put in touch with him!
-BDB2
Bev D. Blackwood II
Brewsletter Editor
The Foam Rangers
http://www.foamrangers.com
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 19:09:41 +0200
From: "Fredrik" <carlsbergerensis at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Mash pH
> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:16:01 -0400
> From: FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com
> Subject: Mash pH
>
> I have read in many places that a desirable mash pH is in the range of
> 5.2-5.5. However, in John Palmer's web publication, How to Brew,
> Palmer provides some really nice nomograms for calculating adjustments
> to one's brewing liquor which target the range of pH 5.6-6.0.
>
> Can someone straighten me out on this? (Perhaps John is listening.)
>
> Fred L Johnson
> Apex, North Carolina, USA
Hello Fred and everyone,
I can't comment specifically on John Palmers's last book because I haven't
seen it yet, but I have one suspision regarding the issue (based on the
previous edition)
pH is temperature dependent as are usually most chemical equilibriums, the
basic reason is the heat is often released or captured in reactions. This
means
heat (temperature) can shift the equilibrium configuration.
HA(aq) + H20 + Heat <=> H3O(+)(aq) + A(-)(aq)
In the example the protolysis captures some heat, it's clear the increasing
the temp will favour protolysis slightly, because heat is a substrate
participating in the reaction.
The usual rule of thumb is the wort pH at mashtemps is approximately 0.35
units or so
[ I have neither measured nor calculated this myself, it's just the ballpark
shift
Mr Palmer cites in his previous book! the exact shift in the general case
would
require knowledge of the the thermodynamic entities for the protolysis
equilibriums, it should be calculable if you dig up the data for the
protolysis
pairs in wort, the calcs shouldn't be that bad, I just never bothered (yet).
I
assume that someone, sometime has either measured or calculated this shift
as valid for "typical wort". ]
Often you make pH measurements on roomtemp wort, so I suspect
perhaps Palmer's excellent nomograph range refer to roomtemp readings? They
did so at least in his previous edition of howto brew (maybe it's the same?)
Assuming the "0.35 shift" as a valid guesstimate.
The 5.2-5.5 range at mashtemps, would correspond to the
5.6-5.9 at roomtemp, which is close enough to what you cite.
I always measure my mash pH at roomtemp, and if I want
~5.5 at mashtemps, my roomtemp target is some 5.8-5.9.
/Fredrik
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 18:37:18 -0400
From: Fred L Johnson <FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com>
Subject: Palmer's nomograms
Regarding Fredrik's speculation that Palmer's nomogram target higher pH
levels than I've typically read, Palmer does state in the footnote to
his nomgram the following:
"The actual pH of the mash at mash temperature (~150 degrees F) is
typically 0.35 pH less than it measures at room temperature."
So perhaps Fredrik's speculation is correct.
This, then, begs the question, "Were the pH optima that are so widely
published determined at mash temperatures?"
I'll bet someone would have to do some real deep digging to answer that
one, and I am so impressed with the abundance of misinformation in the
homebrewing literature, that I feel like I've got to reinvent the wheel
just to make sure it's supposed to be round."
Fred L Johnson
Apex, North Carolina, USA
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 20:29:29 -0400
From: "Jennifer Isenhour" <jscisenhour at hotmail.com>
Subject: mash pH mess
I just tried to take a pH reading from my mash (for the first time) and it
looked like the pH was about 4.9 or so. (those litmus papers are not very
accurate so I'm not too worried, but I guess it could be as low as 4.6) I
took a reading by sticking the test strips right into my mash tun; then
after
realizing that I needed to test the mash at room temp. I took a sample,
cooled and tested it. The mess came when I put my sample back in the
mash tun. Will this cause any type of contamination/off flavors? The
unfermented wort tastes fairly normal, but my mind is playing tricks on me
and I may detect something in there. Any input yall have would be great.
Thanks.
Justin
Fort Mill, SC
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 10:28:21
From: "C.D. Pritchard" <cdp at chattanooga.net>
Subject: Re: Fixing carbonation in a bottled beer
A counter pressure bottle filler can be hooked up "in reverse" and used to
transfer brew from bottles to a keg while minimizing contact of the brew
with air. Connect the co2 supply line to the vent connection on the
filler and close the co2-in valve. Opening the vent valve allows co2 to
pressurize the bottle which will push the brew out of the bottle.
Something similar in function can be cobbled together by stuffing tubing
from the keg thru the hole in a bottle sized rubber stopper then (as seen
on a web page...) jabbing a football inflating needle thru the top of the
stopper. Co2 via the inflating needle will push the brew out of the bottle.
c.d. pritchard cdp at chattanooga.net
http://chattanooga.net/~cdp/
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5032, 07/16/06
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