Ask The Brewmasters

I am wondering if anyone has any experience with trying to use calcium hydroxide to raise pH of a finished dark ale to raise the pH a couple of decimals?  I have a dark ale fermenting with a pH of 4.2 and I am wondering if there are any tricks to increase the pH post fermentation.  I have plated it which ruled out an infection so I am just trying to increase it a touch.  Thanks in advance

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Landon Swanson
Head Brewer
Pueblo Vida Brewing
Tucson AZ
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Hey Landon,
The first thing that comes to mind is the total growth of your yeast - if you're seeing a drastic pH reduction like this (and not just because of the dark malts used) you may be seeing a substantial amount of metabolic leakage, aka overwhelming division of yeast. Try looking into your oxygenation and pitch rates. 
Secondly, it could be worth exploring - or further optimizing - the use (if not already) Calcium Chloride or Sulfate in the brewhouse to help buffer. Though, too much gypsum in the later stage of the brewhouse has been shown to increase biomass.
Finally, and this comes from more the food science side, using food grade sodium hydroxide to adjust pH. While not really standard in the beer industry, it is widely used in food and beverage production. This doesn't come without risks (flavor/micro stability) but adjusting to what you describe as a few decimal places, shouldn't impact much. 

Hope this helps.




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Tim Faith
Technical Brewing Manager
Timfr11@gmail.com
(847) 400-4745
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Original Message:
Sent: 9/7/2022 11:28:00 AM
From: Tim Faith
Subject: RE: Increase pH post fermentation

Hey Landon,
The first thing that comes to mind is the total growth of your yeast - if you're seeing a drastic pH reduction like this (and not just because of the dark malts used) you may be seeing a substantial amount of metabolic leakage, aka overwhelming division of yeast. Try looking into your oxygenation and pitch rates. 
Secondly, it could be worth exploring - or further optimizing - the use (if not already) Calcium Chloride or Sulfate in the brewhouse to help buffer. Though, too much gypsum in the later stage of the brewhouse has been shown to increase biomass.
Finally, and this comes from more the food science side, using food grade sodium hydroxide to adjust pH. While not really standard in the beer industry, it is widely used in food and beverage production. This doesn't come without risks (flavor/micro stability) but adjusting to what you describe as a few decimal places, shouldn't impact much. 

Hope this helps.




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Tim Faith
Technical Brewing Manager
Timfr11@gmail.com
(847) 400-4745
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Baking Soda aka sodium Bicarbonate works well.

I'm going from memory here, but I believe we used 454g dissolved in a bit of hot water for a .2 pH increase in 12bbls.

I wouldn't go too heavy with it or you will get a chalky taste.


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Ivan Dedek
Brewmaster/Food Scientist
Meier's Creek Brewing
Cazenovia NY
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Why would you want to increase the ph after fermentation? 4.2 is ideal. That's an excellent place to be for shelf stability.

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Bill Hyland
Head Brewer
Bozeman Brewing Co.
Bozeman, MT
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Original Message:
Sent: 9/7/2022 12:08:00 PM
From: Bill Hyland
Subject: RE: Increase pH post fermentation

Why would you want to increase the ph after fermentation? 4.2 is ideal. That's an excellent place to be for shelf stability.

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Bill Hyland
Head Brewer
Bozeman Brewing Co.
Bozeman, MT
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Hey Landon,

I would start with your water. The composition of your water and how you treat it (as Tim mentioned) will help drive your pH in the finished beer. Treating your mash as well as your kettle with the appropriate amount of salts can have quite an impact. What is the pH of your mash, kettle, and knock out?

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Aaron Brodniak
Consultant
Edmonds WA
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There was a great CBC presentation on this last year. You may be able to find it somewhere. But pickling lime is great for this. No adverse affects on flavor or shelf life.

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Garry McShane
Head Brewer
Cabarrus Brewing Co.
Concord NC
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IS there any chance that you know the title of the talk?   Thank you all for the answers.  I feel like there was some misunderstanding with my questions.  Our hotside procedures are pretty well understood.  I am just trying to get the answers of what to do once the beer is about to transfer to a brite for final packaging.  More of a cooking question and not brewing, I guess.

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Landon Swanson
Head Brewer
Pueblo Vida Brewing
Tucson AZ
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 09-08-2022 11:33
From: Garry McShane
Subject: Increase pH post fermentation

There was a great CBC presentation on this last year. You may be able to find it somewhere. But pickling lime is great for this. No adverse affects on flavor or shelf life.

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Garry McShane
Head Brewer
Cabarrus Brewing Co.
Concord NC
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