52 PH stabilizer

[Pappy]

Has anyone used this stuff?
I've been brewing at my new home in the Philippines and have not been able to get my water analyzed as of yet. My first few batches here have yielded rather disappointing efficiencies (but darned-good tasting beer!)
I was visiting a homebrew store in the US last week and mentioned this and the proprietor pulled out this 52 PH stabilizer and told me this was the magic bullet. Has anyone used this stuff? Any tips for its usage?
I will be brewing a smoked porter tomorrow and would appreciate any input. I'll let you guys know how I fared.

Mabuhay!
pappy

[toneyc]

I use it here in Central Texas where we have a lot of hardness to the water because of the limestone. I love the stuff! I add it to my mash water just before I mash in and I add it to my sparge water just before I batch sparge.

:)
Toney.

[BrewDog]

Me too, same as Toney.

[danno]

I add it to my mash (2 tablespoons for 10 gal) just as I'm doughing in, and I've noticed a 5 point jump in my efficiency. I too love it...

[Mad Scientist]

The guys at AHS swear by it, though I have yet to use it. It is on my next shopping list though. I'm getting somewhere between 65% and 71% out of my mashes, generally depending on the amount of grains I am mashing. Most of my mashes are about 69% or more. And to frank, I am tired of trying to figure out way to improve my mashing....if this is the majic-bullet them I'll be a happy camper.

[Pappy]

Well, the smoked porter I brewed yesterday yielded 79%. To say I'm pleased would be an understatment. I added 1 TBS to the mash water and 1TBS to the sparge water.

The funny thing though, is my PH strips still showed somewhere around 5.8%. I guess they really aren't all the accurate, eh?

Thanks for the responses, guys.

By the way, 27 of 28 young filipinas surveyed in a blind taste test prefer my bavarian hefeweizen to my IPA. Just in case you wanted to know ;-)

[toneyc]

Doesn't suprise me! IIRC, San Miguel doesn't have much of a hop presence, either.

:D
Toney.

[monomer]

My understanding is you don't need to put any '5.2stabilizer' in the sparge water at all... only 1 tbs/ 5 gal. total batch size, in the mash during the dough-in. I guess enough buffering power is left with the mash grains to keep the pH low during sparging until the the SG drops below 1.008 ...at least that was the explanation from the manufacturer (and the inventer) that I came across.

I'm going to try it (for the first time) in my next all-grain (next weekend).
________
AMBER TRICHOMES (http://trichomes.org)

[Derekt2]

The only thing I can't figure out about that stuff is how to incorporate it into my existing recipes which also rely on gypsum and/or CaCl for *flavor* enhancement. Example:

My EPA uses 3-1/2 tsp. gypsum (1 in mash, 1 in sparge, 1-1/2 in boil). While the first two are primarily for pH adjustments they do carry-over and add to the 1-1/2 tsp I add to the boilk aid with break *and* harden the water to accentuate the hops and further dry out the beer. Since I don't know exactly what's in 5.2 I'm not sure how to adjust for this. Anybody run into this?