Besides vinegar and baking soda what simple fixes can I use to adjust PH both ways!

You may or may not be doing this. I would personally focus on equilibrium pH and not using a pH meter. Perhaps the reason for your pH fluctuations might be beneficial.

Don't; you're solving an imaginary problem by creating a real one.

Coffee taste depends more on the way minerals in the water affect the brewing process rather than the water's precise pH. So the hardness level is more important for coffee taste than pH. Adding bicarbonates or vinegar, on the other hand, will add lousy aftertastes.

Moreover, the instantaneous measured water pH depends on the amount of absorbed CO2, and can vary from 6 to 8 pH: shake or stir it, let it sit covered, warm it or cool it, and it will change. Water has an equilibrium pH which depends on the level of dissolved minerals, in particular, the level dissolved carbonates. You raise this value by hardening water, and lower it by softening. This is the only manipulation you want to be doing to your water.

The only thing that I asked was besides vinegar and baking soda what else I could use for adjusting the PH. I was not asking if I should or shouldn't, just what I could use To correct the PH

Hydrochloric acid and lye come to mind

In cooking, citric acid (sour salt) or lemon juice are routinely used to acidulate the broth or water for cooking veggies or making soups and stews. They, along with lime juice are also used for making ceviche. I have never seen a similar use for alkaline cooking water; lye and baking soda are used for baking, but only to create bubbles or special surfaces, not to make the final product alkaline.

You can use washing soda (pH of 11) in place of baking soda (pH of 8.3) or lye (pH of 13). It's safer than lye, but more alkaline than baking soda and is caustic so I wouldn't recommend it. You can convert baking soda to washing soda by baking the powder in the oven changing the sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. I've used this for making pretzels when I didn't have or want to use lye.

I found a link that talks about using vinegar, citric acid, or alum to make water more acidic to reduce corrosion or get rid of a soda taste in water: http://www.extension.org/pages/32302/dr ... _injection

another_jim wrote:Don't; you're solving an imaginary problem by creating a real one.

Coffee taste depends more on the way minerals in the water affect the brewing process rather than the water's precise pH. So the hardness level is more important for coffee taste than pH. Adding bicarbonates or vinegar, on the other hand, will add lousy aftertastes.

Moreover, the instantaneous measured water pH depends on the amount of absorbed CO2, and can vary from 6 to 8 pH: shake or stir it, let it sit covered, warm it or cool it, and it will change. Water has an equilibrium pH which depends on the level of dissolved minerals, in particular, the level dissolved carbonates. You raise this value by hardening water, and lower it by softening. This is the only manipulation you want to be doing to your water.

What about using sodium bicarbonate to raise the TDS in addition to some calcium? Say I have a GH of around 65ppm (zerowater mix with tap), which keeps scaling to a minimum but allows for some taste. Would supplementing this with sodium bicarbonate to raise the TDS to 90 or 150ppm improve the espresso extractions or would this too have the undesirable aftertaste you mention? It would also increase the KH, because based on my API test kit, I'm floating between 35 and 53ppm, which would put my equilibrium pH below 7. I heard this low of a pH with a copper boiler isn't the greatest?

You're talking about adding 50 mg/L or 1 gram per 20 liters. Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to use a calcite cartridge?

That is true. I think it's .12g of sodium bicarb per liter to take RO water to 80ppm (with 0 GH)? I've considered doing this with 0 GH but I've read that you need calcium in the water for copper boilers. However, I'm not sure if the person said this because it was assumed that Calcium would have been included in any water that is not distilled. Therefore, as long as you don't use distilled water, it's fine.

I'm only really worried about my 65ppm in my current setup due to the lower alkalinity. I do have a .01g scale but I doubt it's accurate to measure anything that low.

Calcite cartridge would be more of an option if I was able to plumb.

I do admit, this might be a pretty ridiculous process to just increase the pH (7-8) and TDS (90-150ppm).