My Dubbel came out ok, but not good enough.What went wrong?

[spiderwrangler]

One thing is for certain ..... good mash ph should be in the 5.2-5.5 range, and I guess the only way for me to truly find out where I'm at is to bite the bullet and plunk down $70 for a PH meter and do some dark brews to map out my PH range so I know what to add for water adjustments. If I do that, and my PH is good, and my dark beers are still astringent, then I will know to look elseware in my process.

Or mash your other grains if you aren't having problems with them and add the dark grains at the end, or steep in a separate vessel...

[grainman]

One thing is for certain ..... good mash ph should be in the 5.2-5.5 range, and I guess the only way for me to truly find out where I'm at is to bite the bullet and plunk down $70 for a PH meter and do some dark brews to map out my PH range so I know what to add for water adjustments. If I do that, and my PH is good, and my dark beers are still astringent, then I will know to look elseware in my process.

Or mash your other grains if you aren't having problems with them and add the dark grains at the end, or steep in a separate vessel...

yes , that sounds like a viable option, but I want to find out if I really need to. I just ordered some colorphast strips, and will do some dark beers to see whats goin on.