Ph vs TA for sours and such

[brain medicine]

so i think i get the gist of why TA is a more "complete" view of the sour power but im also wondering when/where it makes sense to go to the trouble of titrating vs just using a reliable pH meter.

when working in SF we have pretty soft and clean water. TDS is about 63, turbidity 0.2, conductance 146, etc. im not even sure what those last two things are in anything but a general way, but all in all we're soft water, mostly from granite reservoir in Yosemite.

so, given that, would i be safe to assume that a reliable pH figure should be enough for us? we'd mostly be doing kettle sour type beers. little to no long term aging.

[gitchegumee]

No trouble...

If you understand why you want to use TA instead of pH, then I don't understand why you would want to use pH. Titration is easy. Especially after you have the reagents and glassware set and know what you're doing. And you will want to use your pH meter to titrate as well--I like it much better than phenolphthalein. Both pH and TA parameters are useful. TA better for end point of your souring. pH for quick check. Kinda like using refractometer for quick check and hydrometer for accurate notes. Good luck.