HOMEBREW Digest #6062 Wed 20 November 2013
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
Re: pH Meters ("David Houseman")
pH Meters ("A. J. deLange")
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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 22:02:38 -0500
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: pH Meters
Pete observes astutely:
"I guess the pH meter makers are like printer companies. Don't
make much on the unit but make up for that on the extras. $19.00 for the
storage solution."
Not sure if AJ would agree, but IMHO good pH strips (ColorpHast for example)
are perfectly adequate for the brewing that we do (well most of us) and at
about $35/100 strips, or $.35 each, are pretty cost effective. No storage
solution. No calibrating solutions. No replacing the probes. In fact
you can make great beer without any pH measurements; brewers did it for
centuries.
But pH meters are cool gadgets.....
Dave Houseman
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Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 00:59:28 -0500
From: "A. J. deLange" <ajdel at verizon.net>
Subject: pH Meters
A saturated or near saturated solution of potassium chloride is the
usual storage solution but one sometimes sees the recommendation that
the electrode be stored in buffer. The buffers have plenty of ionic
strength with respect to the bulb itself but low concentration of KCl in
the storage solution sets up chemical potential gradients across the
junction so that water tends to migrate in and potassium chloride out.
This can exhaust/dilute the electrolyte in the reference half cell.
You could probably save money by making up storage solution yourself but
the one's you buy may contain mold inhibitors (as the buffers often do)
and/or buffer.
For brewing applications the enzymatic cleaner Zymit is very good. A
little goes a long way (i.e. a liter should last a good long time) and
is great for cleaning anything else in your brewery that gets gummed up
by beer/wort. The more usual cleaning regimens involve going back and
forth between stong acid and base solutions and some recommend
hydrofluoric acid which actually etches away the surface of the bulb to
some extent (and is also very nasty stuff).
Can't remember whether I touched on this in the last post or not but
erratic readings in distilled water are to be expected and, with
inexpensive meters, drift is commonplace.
A.J.
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #6062, 11/20/13
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