pH testing

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The pH value of a solution expresses how acidic or basic it is, ranging from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral (neither acidic nor basic), and lower values becoming increasingly acidic. More technically, the pH of a solution is defined as the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ion. This expresses a concentration like "0.0000001 mol H+ per liter" as a more user-friendly term: pH 7.

Typical pH ranges:

  • Wine: 2.8-3.5[1]
  • Beer: 4.2-4.7[1][2]
  • Sour beer: 3.0-3.8
  • Wort: 5.0-5.8


It is worth investing in capable pH measuring equipment with at least a 2-point calibration. It is also worth reading the instructions and following them to the letter. Most importantly it is essential to keep the pH meter safe in a dedicated room (dare I say lab) where its use can be monitored. pH electrodes are very costly and very fragile. Cheap handheld pH meters are very inaccurate so should be avoided. The money saved buying one will be spent on throwing bad beer away.[3]

Cheap meter inaccurate.[4]

Testimonials[5]

  • Paulaner - "I had good luck with the Milwaukee mw102. I went with that one because replacement probes were reasonably priced, the accuracy was within the limits of what I needed and I never had a problem with it after 3+ years of service of weekly use."
  • h22lude - "I have the mw102 too. It is a great meter. I've had it for years and stays calibrated during brew day. I bought it over extech, omega, hanna and the like because I liked the idea of having the probe off the body. I dont even though it is a great meter, I'd rather have the pen style meter. I find them easier to use. The wires just get it the way for me. I'd still recommend it though. You just need to figure out if you'd like the wires or the pen style" ... "I might be extremely lucky but I havent had to replace my mw102 probe since I bought it years ago. I calibrate it at the beginning of brew day with 4.01 and 7.01. I then test it with 4.01 throughout the day. It always reads 4.01 (sometimes it may go down to 4.00). The only thing I notice is it may take a little longer to get to the final reading as the day goes on (maybe an extra 15 seconds)."
  • The Beerery - "Had great luck with my mw102, bought a extech Ph110 to go with a less bulkier handheld unit. Love that as well"
  • natebrews - "I have this right now: Beverage Doctor (MoreBeer) Looks like an extech ripoff. Replaceable tip, auto cal, nothing special but seems to work."
  • munich - "Omega Phh-7011 for the last 3+ years and no issues at all. Before that I had a WM102 that was nothing but problems."
  • tizoc - "Mine is an Apera Instruments PH60, bought it on amazon for about 80 bucks + 30 for a replacement probe (which I have no had to use yet) and for the price I think it is quite good."
  • gwillkom - "I have the [Apera Instruments PH60], I like it a lot. Comes in a big plastic case along with 2 calibration solutions and a small bottle of storage solution. Very easy to calibrate and use. More responsive and accurate than my last crappy one. Apera Instruments AI311 Premium Series PH60 Waterproof pH Pocket Tester Kit, Replaceable Probe, ±0.01 pH Accuracy Amazon"
  • RobStein - "I have always been happy with the Hanna pHep5 (HI98128) which is also a pen type, easy to calibrate, etc., and has the nice feature of a renewable fabric junction." Later... "My Hanna pHep5 (pen type) was becoming slow to stabilize, and drifting quite a bit, reading increasingly low at lower pH (confirmed against 4.01) even with a new electrode. Got a MW101 and, though I don't yet have much experience, I'm astonished at how quick and steady it is. Now I realize the Hanna wasn't as good as I thought. Getting used to the remote probe setup, not as awkward as I might have expected."
  • schematix - "I’ve bought 2 meters and had consistency issues with both. One was the Hanna Phep (don’t have exact model handy but it’s 0.01 and you can replace the probe. It was never stable from the beginning. [Next] I got an mw102 and it worked better, but dealing with the tangled probes has led to several samples getting tipped over. I also dont trust the readings. I’ll do my 4.01 and 7.01 cals, then go back and check and they’ll be off at least a couple hundredths. The wort samples also continue to drift seemingly endlessly. After a minute it might stop flashing the hourglass and read 5.07, but 10 minutes later it’s at 5.5."
  • ajk - "Like others, I really like my Apera."
  • Bilsch - "I’ve been using the Milwaukee 102 for a couple years now and find it to be a good meter as long as you keep the probe clean or replace about every 6 months and comparatively the probes are cheap. Yea the cords can be a pain but so are the top heavy pocket/pen types."
  • MEBrewer - "Like others, I've had good luck with my MW102. The probe does need, in my case, to be replaced about every 18-24 months. That's even with always keeping it in the storage solution and never subjecting it to high temps."
  • Metts - "I bought this one back in early 2018: «Apera Instruments AI311 Premium Series PH60 Waterproof pH Pocket Tester Kit, Replaceable Probe, ±0.01 pH Accuracy» I love the thing. When I check it to calibrate it it's never been off more than 0.05 from the standard even after extended periods of storage. It's normally within 0.02 so I just roll with it. It's pretty fast, comes with a decent storage box."


I had that problem at first with the probe drifting, I found that when I let it sit in RO water it would do this, but when I would hold it in storage solution between reading on brew day it was dead on with no drift.[5]

https://www.morebeer.com/products/milwaukee-ph-meter-atc.html

Potential sources

See Also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ a b kunze ch1
  2. ↑ Habschied K, Lončarić A, Mastanjević K. Screening of polyphenols and antioxidative activity in industrial beers. Foods. 2020;9(2):238.
  3. ↑ Howe S. Raw materials. In: Smart C, ed. The Craft Brewing Handbook. Woodhead Publishing; 2019.
  4. ↑ https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/kettle-sour-not-really-that-sour-after-72-hours-doing-something-wrong.700946/
  5. ↑ a b "pH meter." Low Oxygen Brewing forum, 2020.
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