I'm making a batch of ice cider, from apples from my own trees (not shop-bought juice). No preservatives. The constituent apples are early this year, and most of this batch is windfalls; 55% green and 45% red. These have been frozen in a chest freezer, and then shredded and pressed. The batch is ~21 litres, primary in a plastic bucket. The freshly pressed juice tastes great, not too sour at all (back to this later). I added campden tablets at …

I'm trying to brew "non-alcoholic" (<0.5% abv) beer using the BIAB method by using a smaller amount of grain than is typical. I'm happy with the resulting beer except that I believe the final pH is too high and the bottled beer is potentially unsafe. I've tried using acidulated malt but the final pH is still too high, so I'm now planning to use lactic acid to reduce the pH. I've been unable to find answers to the following questions, …

I have been experimenting with sugar wash fermentations. I've tried sucrose (cane sugar) as well as dextrose (corn sugar) and observed stalled fermentations in both, in spite of sufficient yeast nutrients, DO and yeast alcohol tolerance. I'm suspecting that the pH of the wash may be the culprit. As other already have noted (but something I had yet to learn when I started) the pH of a fermenting sugar wash can crash to 3 or even 2.5 or so. Unsurprisingly, …

I only recently started making hard cider at home. My problem is that it causes a uncomfortable burning sensation in my stomach after two or so drinks. I am using about 5g of yeast and 1.5kg sugar on 5 litres of cider (approx. 1.3 gallon) and it ferments for about 7 to 10 days. I then add about 100 grams sugar before bottling to give it some fizz. After about a day or so I cold crash and then consume. …

What is the ideal boil pH? You hear a lot about mash pH, but if you've maximized your mash efficiency and conversion what is the best pH for the kettle? Pre boil? Post boil?

I am looking into building a copper immersion chiller for use on my next batch of beer. I plan on doing a sour ale. Will the low PH of the wort have any negative affect on the chiller? Will it cause the metal to leech extra particles, possibly causing off flavors?

The general consensus seems to be that a mash pH of 5.2-5.6 is desired. Beersmith even says it's the difference between a good beer and a truly great one. Most mention trouble with too high of a pH, but I'm wondering, what are the impacts of a much lower pH, like 4.5 or even 4.0? I ask because adjusting the pH to make the environment favor lactobacillus using acidulated malt would be a pre-mash way of lowering the pH (rather …

As per the title really... if you had tannin level on one axis of a graph and pH on another, how would the cider vary across this 'spectrum'? More acidic I can imagine will taste... more acidic ;) But I'm wondering how a low/none amount of tannin would taste, or a very non-acidic must. Would you get something sweet, or just bland and insipid?

I've always disagreed with the idea that dry hopping or late hopping added 0 IBUs to your end product. If I ever brewed a kit or recipe and followed the hop schedule exactly, it would pretty much always end up too bitter. I found out that my local water pH was high (8.0) when running into some astringency issues and wondered if that had anything to do with it. At first I thought it was the high sulfate content in …

Can a wine's pH be adjusted after fermentation? I brewed a blueberry wine and it came out horrible. The red yeast was dead, so to salvage the must I pitched champagne yeast. That was the first problem. Secondly, the wine's ph level was too high, resulting in a humiliating weak tasting wine. If possible, I'd like to increase the acidity of the wine in the hope of making it a little more pleasant to drink... Or should I scrap the …

I’m currently creating a batch of mead. I’ve watched a lot of videos about the process. I’ve seen some people do it because they said you need to have it between 3.6 and 3.9 ph. And some just don’t bother and it turns out great. In the first batch i’m making right now i’ve made no changes to the ph level. And of course made sure to sterilize everything beforehand. The biggest part i’m sort of concerned about is, do …

This question's answer led me to http://www.milkthefunk.com which is a great source of information. Since there's a few methods for making sour beer, I should mention I've been doing what some call a kettle sour (or fast sour) where I do a mash, then a full boil, then sour the beer using l plantarum in a sealed keg purged with CO2, then do another full boil (topping up with water) then ferment as a standard ale, then keg for carbonation. …

According to this question's answer, from Denny Conn, You don't pretreat the water because it's the mash pH you're concerned with, not the water pH. And this agrees with this article on the power of pH, Malted barley contains phosphates, which are acidic buffers. Making a mash of grain mixed with water will cause the phosphate buffers to achieve a natural pH of around 5.6. Therefore, it does not matter what the initial pH of your brewing water is because …

I've brewed some cider from cooking apple juice. The apples were unusually sweet for cookers so there was enough sugar and I added teabags to add tannin. This gave me cider at ~6.3% which tastes OK except it is very tart, like someone poured lemon juice into it. I gather this may reduce slightly as the cider matures but I doubt it will enough. What is commonly added to this type of drink to make it less acidic? Wine-makers tend …

I just moved to a new state, and brewed a dark beer recipe that I'm fond of-- a weizenbock. However, I believe my water chemistry may have been different enough from my previous location to have dropped the mash pH too low, because my fermented beer is a bit tart. For the time being, I'd like to troubleshoot this problem assuming it's not infected. Today I am going to the homebrew store to get pH strips. How can I correct …

I'm relatively new at adjusting pH levels in my brews. As a result, I went the wrong way in my adjustment and produced a very tart red wine. Can I unbottle it and adjust accordingly? And if so, what's your advice on handling that effort?

I normally do a single mash so I only take one pH reading and adjust the pH with some lactic acid to get within my target range. now I want to do a brew with step mashing where I need to add hot water to get my mash to the next temp step. each time I add water the pH changes and goes out side of what I want it. Must I add more lactic acid after each step to …

I always use RO water to brew. I have never checked mash pH, but have become concerned since my brews have come out darker than predicted by BrewSmith. I thought (I read in How to Brew by Palmer) that adding some DME to the mash will normalize mash pH; so that is what I have done. Is RO water not the way to go? Or should I be paying more attention to mash pH on lighter beers? Is there a …

I'm doing an AG porter recipe. Historically, I have been dissatisfied with my porters - they come out thin, and a bit acidic. Some research suggested that my issue may be mash pH, so I bought so pH strips and some chalk. I measured my mash pH using the strips and it was in the 4.9 range, so I started adding chalk 1 teaspoon at a time. Eventually I got to 5 teaspoons, and the pH strip still registered about …

I am planning a brew where Rye malt is a considerable component of the grist. I am trying to predict my mash pH by taking the weighted lab wort pH contributions of each of my malts, and accounting for residual alkalinity. I have read that rye malt, like wheat malt has tendency opposite to barley, in that it increases pH. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a malt analysis or other reliable information that would give even an estimate …