Beer Forum

My water is fairly hard and I am trying to make a New Belgium Mighty Arrow clone. I have used Palmer's spreadsheet to reach my target RA, CA, and Chloride to Sulfate rate, but the last time I brewed, I think my ph dropped too low. As an insurnace policy, I have considered adding Five Star 5.2 stabilizer. Has anyone else done this? What effect do you think it would have?

I use it in the mash and it increased my brewhouse efficiency tremendously. I hit my target gravity readings every time. Even with less than textbook sparging. It especially helped my pale brews. Huge difference in efficiency.

I have used it before too. I like the product but with hard water and trying to brew a pale beer, can I still add gypsum without any problems?

gillmanjs wrote:I have used it before too. I like the product but with hard water and trying to brew a pale beer, can I still add gypsum without any problems?

I was using it exclusively and noticed that my pale beers were way harsher than my amber to dark beers. 2 Hefeweizens and a Blond that were good but there was something missing.

I brewed a 5SRM beer 2 weeks ago and went with dilution and salts.

5.2 AND gypsum? I don't know.

gillmanjs wrote:My water is fairly hard and I am trying to make a New Belgium Mighty Arrow clone. I have used Palmer's spreadsheet to reach my target RA, CA, and Chloride to Sulfate rate, but the last time I brewed, I think my ph dropped too low. As an insurnace policy, I have considered adding Five Star 5.2 stabilizer. Has anyone else done this? What effect do you think it would have?

Unless you were brewing something with a LOT of black malt or you added mineral or lactic acid or used acidulated malt it is unlikely that your pH actually went too low. It would take a gram of calcium chloride dihydrate per liter of treated water to pull mash pH down by 0.3 points relative to distilled water (expected mash pH 5.4 - 5.5). But if it did then yes, 5 Star 5.2 will tend to bring it back but does not in general have much effect with even modestly "hard" water as it is a phosphate buffer which doesn't have that much buffering capacity at pH 5.2. You are effectively using the basic salts of phosphoric acid to raise pH. There are other salts better suited to doing this. Do you want to add all that sodium and/or potassium (don't know whethe 5.2 is sodium or potassium phosphate mix) to your brew especially given that you have already added other salts?

I think a pH meter or pH strips would be a better form of insurance for you.