After brewing for seven years, I'm finally getting into water treatment and managing my mash pH. I do understand that there is no simple answer to water. My questions are more about practice, than definitive solutions:
1. I've been using Chicago water straight out of the tap and I don't know if it's beneficial for me to move over to distilled or RO when it comes to treatment. Does anyone have a reason for starting with either of those over tap? I've definitely come to see that my darker brews are much better than my lighter beers. So I understand that the dark malts are probably getting me close to the correct pH range.
2.Is there a particular way to handle step mashing. For my system, I increase temperature by adding additional water. Should I be treating my water additions before each step, or complete the step and then measure my mash pH again and treat it accordingly? Or perhaps, is distilled water beneficial for this type of step mash?
3. I batch sparge. Should I be concerned with treating the sparge water? I'm sure it depends on the grain bill. I can't tell you the gravity of my second runnings but clearly they aren't as high as the first runnings. My question here is, should I treat the sparge before the addition, or should I measure the pH of the mash when the sparge water is added?
4. I've seen mixed opinions of the target mash pH range. Is the pH range of 5.2 to 5.5 at room temperature or mash temp? I noticed that EZ Water Calculator says it's 5.4 to 5.6 at room temp, but I see John Palmer only talk about pH being in the 5.2 range at room temp. I'm using a meter with ATC but I understand that (ATC) doesn't really matter.
Any help is appreciated!
1. I've been using Chicago water straight out of the tap and I don't know if it's beneficial for me to move over to distilled or RO when it comes to treatment. Does anyone have a reason for starting with either of those over tap? I've definitely come to see that my darker brews are much better than my lighter beers. So I understand that the dark malts are probably getting me close to the correct pH range.
2.Is there a particular way to handle step mashing. For my system, I increase temperature by adding additional water. Should I be treating my water additions before each step, or complete the step and then measure my mash pH again and treat it accordingly? Or perhaps, is distilled water beneficial for this type of step mash?
3. I batch sparge. Should I be concerned with treating the sparge water? I'm sure it depends on the grain bill. I can't tell you the gravity of my second runnings but clearly they aren't as high as the first runnings. My question here is, should I treat the sparge before the addition, or should I measure the pH of the mash when the sparge water is added?
4. I've seen mixed opinions of the target mash pH range. Is the pH range of 5.2 to 5.5 at room temperature or mash temp? I noticed that EZ Water Calculator says it's 5.4 to 5.6 at room temp, but I see John Palmer only talk about pH being in the 5.2 range at room temp. I'm using a meter with ATC but I understand that (ATC) doesn't really matter.
Any help is appreciated!