105 replies to this topic

[positiveContact]

As a plus you could buy a few gallons and go 50% distilled on your next Pils.

Ha! Fortunately my water is pretty soft.

[MyaCullen]

Ha! Fortunately my water is pretty soft.

If I really want to make a soft Pils, I just use DI water from work.

[positiveContact]

If I really want to make a soft Pils, I just use DI water from work.

 

that's pretty handy.  do you use all DI and add all your own salts or do you just dilute your water or some combo of the two?

[positiveContact]

okay - I bought a jug of distilled water and calibrated today.  seems like everything went as it should and it was pretty easy.  I did put some storage solution in the cap and put the the probe into the cap.  Do I need to store it upright now b/c otherwise it seems like the probe part might not actually be in the storage solution?

 

also - can I reuse the storage solution in the cap?  it seems like it could since I'll be rinsing this thing off after every use.  I should order some more though b/c I just used half of my supply!

[HVB]

okay - I bought a jug of distilled water and calibrated today.  seems like everything went as it should and it was pretty easy.  I did put some storage solution in the cap and put the the probe into the cap.  Do I need to store it upright now b/c otherwise it seems like the probe part might not actually be in the storage solution?

 

also - can I reuse the storage solution in the cap?  it seems like it could since I'll be rinsing this thing off after every use.  I should order some more though b/c I just used half of my supply!

I reuse what is in the cap

[matt6150]

Yeah I reuse what's in the cap just top off when needed. I fill till its full and when you put the probe in, and some leaks out, it will be fully submerged even on its side.

[HVB]

Yeah I reuse what's in the cap just top off when needed. I fill till its full and when you put the probe in, and some leaks out, it will be fully submerged even on its side.

Same

[positiveContact]

Good tips thanks!

[positiveContact]

at least in this instance I have to concede bru'n water is pretty much nuts on.  it predicted 5.5 and my meter was around 5.48-5.5 around the time when the smiley face came on.  one odd thing and maybe this was just the sample cooling a little bit more but the pH was drifting slowly down.  after a minute or so it was at 5.44.  the temperature was about 73F when I took the measurement.

 

for reference if I had used my colorphast strips at room temp I would have put this around 5.2-5.3 so while not the most accurate I'd at least know that I'm not off in left field??  although I guess I'd need to be off in left field according to my meter and then see that the strips agree to know if they are really a safety net or not.

oh yeah - the manual/quick ref guide for this meter has at least some minor issues.  one I've already found is it tells you hold mode to turn the meter off.  you hold the power button (duh!).

[positiveContact]

just pointing this out by itself in case it's lost in the above post....

 

do you guys notice pH dropping if you leave the probe in for ~1 min?  is this just temperature related or something else?

[MyaCullen]

that's pretty handy.  do you use all DI and add all your own salts or do you just dilute your water or some combo of the two?

I've done all of the above, for bohemian, straight DI, for German 50%

[denny]

just pointing this out by itself in case it's lost in the above post....

 

do you guys notice pH dropping if you leave the probe in for ~1 min?  is this just temperature related or something else?

Yep.  According to Martin, it drops for the first 45 min.

[positiveContact]

So I last calibrated my meter a couple of weeks ago. Do I need to do it again?

[HVB]

With mine I would not but that is because I know from using it that it will hold the reading well.  I would dip it in some 4 and 7 and if the reading is on roll with it.  If the reading is not good re-calibrate.

[positiveContact]

the 7.0 was about a tenth high so I did a 2 point calibration.

 

I pulled a sample at about 30 mins and it had to chill in the freezer for about 10 mins.  I accidentally got it down to 60F but probably not a huge issue.  so 40 mins in I was at 5.3.  bru'n water predicted 5.4.  was the pH 5.4 15 minutes earlier?  maybe!  I kind of wonder what point in time bru'n water is predicting if pH drops during the mash.

 

and since I have a lot of colorphast strips I again checked with one of those.  I would have put it at 5.1 (measured 4.8 and add 0.3, this is my standard procedure) instead of 5.3.  so again not awful but not great if you really wanted to know exactly what your pH was.

[MyaCullen]

what is your standard deviation on your PH meter?

[positiveContact]

Like what is the accuracy? I think it's 0.01? Probably more like 0.02 or something.

[MyaCullen]

how satisfied are you with the meter? Is that this one? https://www.amazon.c...customerReviews

[positiveContact]

that is the one.  I've only used it the two times so far so I can't say much about long term accuracy or reliability but so far it's easy to use and seems to be giving reasonable results.  so far, so good!

[positiveContact]

checked the cal again today and it was pretty much still spot on.  my pH was slightly higher (5.43 instead of 5.3 according to bru'n water) but that's still pretty good.  It's possible my water varies more in the summer when I don't typically brew as often.  I think 5.43 is fine though - no plans to adjust.