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	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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