Should You Adjust Your Mash pH

The short answer is that most home brewers probably don't. So why does this come up? pH entered the conversation when GFHBers began discovering and experimenting with new exogenous enzymes. Specifically, Ceremix Flex and Ondea Pro. Since neither of these enzymes were specifically designed with brewing gluten free beer in mind, it took a lot of R&D over a long period of time to develop best practices. Originally, many brewers went through the extra step to maintain the 4.2 to 4.8 pH range recommended by the manufacturer. However, over time, many brewers did not find any significant benefits of this extra step. In fact, Grouse Malt House now recommends the traditional 5.2 pH range for their buckwheat and millet malts. (Eckert Malting & Brewing Co does not have an official recommendation that we are aware).

So what are the pros and cons? The current consensus is the conventional 5.2 pH range is preferred since there doesn't appear to be any significant benefit in making adjustments. There may not be any benefit at all. Again, these enzymes were not developed specifically for brewing gluten free beer. And we are not aware of any updated pH recommendations specifically for brewing gluten free beer by the manufacturer.

So why has it taken GFHB so long to update their tutorials and recipe kits? The answer is as simple as it is complicated. The simple part would be to update our tutorials, followed by the step-by-step instructions of every recipe kit that uses Ceremix Flex and Ondea Pro (and recipes on our website), and then a re-education of our customers (and many don't adjust the pH anyway). We have done this before with older (and now discontinued) enzymes, but it is a huge undertaking. And since there is no harm in the current recommendations, and it took a very long time to build the body of evidence, it is not imperative to immediately update our recommendations. 

Now that it is well established that the conventional 5.2 pH range is appropriate for brewing gluten free beer, we have now started the process of updating the before mentioned. However, we will probably still include the manufacturer pH range with an explanation and a bit of historical context.

We hope this short history answers some of your questions, and you feel more confident in whatever decision you make.

Cheers!