BeerBorg

Thanks for the information and feed back. Right now I'm using EZ water. I looked at Bru'n water sometime ago, but it just seemed complicated for my simple brain though there is a ton of info on the site. I do not have a ph meter yet (birthday coming up though), but if I remember EZ calculated around 5.42 for the NEIPA with the addition of 5oz of acid malt.

I live east of Atlanta so my water source is from the lower appalachian foothills. Most all of my beers have been brewed with no water adjustments, but it is something I want to pursue. There is not a style that I haven't brewed with this water and while all are good, some have turned out great. Reading your post to Ray, I'm going to play around with my darker beer water as I feel those beers could be better.

Ph meter recommendations?

Thanks again for all this information,
Jeff

Your welcome Inkleg. Of course this is just my personal take on all this but, it's bases on what I have read, researched and experienced myself.

As far as a ph meter, there are so many out there and others here might recomend something else but I haven't found any need to go beyond something basic such as the Hanna Checker models. I think I'm on my 3rd one over the years. It has a replaceable electrode at about half the price. The probes last a year or two if they are well cared for, and it's easy to change them out without needing a new meter. I have had very good results with mine. Calibrate it every brew day just to make sure and I can trust the readings because they match up with what I am seeing using Bru'n Water. There are some brands with OTC but that is not needed as you need to cool all samples to ~75* for anything brewing related anyway as that is the standard at which guidleine numbers are based on.



https://www.amazon.com/Hanna-Instrument ... B0085WOIMQ

My 2 pennies on the meter. Jeff, this is the one I recently got after my $17 pocket cheapie crapped out. It is auto temp corrected and has a tube with storage solution that has a seal that locks around the probe so the storage solution does not evaporate.
https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-MW102- ... B001DTNDME

I have the same Hanna Checker and my first one lasted about 20 months. Easy to read and calibrate.

Beer-lord wrote:I have the same Hanna Checker and my first one lasted about 20 months. Easy to read and calibrate.

I'm not familiar with these things, so stupid question in 3, 2, 1......

Did you have to get a new meter after the 20 months, or was there just a part that needed to be replaced?

I paid $36 for my first one and when I went to buy the replacment, it was $27 so I just bought a whole new one instead.
I remember reading something recently where this model was being replacement with a new version of the 'Checker' but I've never looked to see what it was like but I thought I read it was about $8 less and was faster. So, you can check out their website to see what they offer now but Amazon is just as cheap.
It is very easy to replace the meter, just unscrews basically. And, I calibrate each time I use it and keep it in cleaning solution when not in use.

But, I've learned I don't need it for every beer I brew once I get to know my water and how much salts I need to add. If I brew the same beer or similar beer, I don't even check it anymore as I know I'm close. But, it's been over a year that I've been using RO so I think I pretty much have it down now and only use the meter every other batch or so. For $36, it's just another tool in my arsenal.

I look at chloride and sulfate like a kids see saw, malty = chloride and hoppy = sulfate. My Kane Head High IPA clone pushed the limits on this concept. Starting out with 100% RO water the additions added pushed the chloride to sulfate ratio down to 0.05.

sodium = 9
magnesium = 10
calcium = 53
chloride = 8
sulfate = 159

Inkleg wrote: I live east of Atlanta so my water source is from the lower appalachian foothills. Most all of my beers have been brewed with no water adjustments, but it is something I want to pursue. There is not a style that I haven't brewed with this water and while all are good, some have turned out great. Reading your post to Ray, I'm going to play around with my darker beer water as I feel those beers could be better.
Jeff

Hey, FWIW, my water is pretty good for many things - I do water adjustments sometimes, but mostly for things like Pilsners (well not actual adjustments for those, I buy RO water and build on it instead of using my water, there isn't a great way to do it right with my water as a real base for those). For some other beers, I might add a bit of gypsum or calcium chloride to my tap water. I also do treat my tap water with campden, which tweaks it a bit to begin with.

For dark beers though, lately I've just been doing the a steep (lately a cold steep) completely separate, even if I am doing a mash or partial mash. I add this in during the boil. That has given me very nice results without having to do a lot of water tweaking for the mash itself. I am getting much better results then putting the dark grains in the mash, even if I adjust my water.

Just something to possibly experiment with if you haven't.