In an attempt to get better control over my brewing, I decided to take a closer look at my PH readings during the brewing process. You really need a PH meter to do this as paper strips are just not accurate enough to read the small differences in PH. I know, I tried! It is just impossible to be able to match the colours on a litmus strip accurately in terms of 0.1!
The good news is that digital PH meters have become relatively in expensive. I bought this one for £30 from the Malt Miller. It works a treat although the instructions leave something to be desired. See here for how to calibrate it.
I had my tap water tested a few months ago by Murphy & Son. Their recommendation was to add 24g of DWB to my mash water (in a 25L batch) to achieve the correct PH. The target is a PH of between 5.2 and 5.6 for mashing.
The table below shows my PH readings for brew number 63 – a hoppy pale ale.
| PH | |
| Tap water | |
| Adjusted Mash Water (DWB added) | 8.76 |
| Mash in (15 mins in) | 5.3 |
| Mash out (100 mins in) | 5.20 |
| Wort before boil (sparge water added) | 5.25 |
| Wort after boil | 5.16 |
| During fermentation | 4.34 |
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