A pH question

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Hwk-I-St8

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I've read a lot about, and very carefully managed, mash pH in my beers. Recently, I've seen more comments about the pH of the final beer, but have read absolutely nothing about desirable ranges or how to get there. I've always just assumed if your mash pH is good, your done.

Is there more to this story? Should I be measuring my final pH? Should I be targeting specific values or ranges based on style? How does one manage the pH if necessary?

Obviously I'm not talking things like kettle sours where pH is a critical part of creating the beer. I'm thinking an IPA or a russian imperial stout or a blonde ale for example. Should I be worrying about final pH on those and, if so, how?
 
By controlling the mash pH you are (attempting to) control the start of boil pH.

You should control the start of boil pH to 5.1-5.2, some say 4.9-5.1.

Depending on the hot-break/hops in the boil the pH will drop (by ~0.2) to 4.9-5.0 as the end of boil pH.

It's then that the yeast will take over and setup their environment (so-to-speak) and will further drop the pH of the beer to their preferred fermentation pH.

You could artificially drop the end of boil pH to a certain level but pitching the right amount of yeast will enable them to take care of themselves.

I don't know that there are any guidelines as to start/end boil pH per beer style as the yeast are mostly in control.

Texts such as Declerk and Kunze might provide more specific guidance.

http://beerandwinejournal.com/proper-boil-ph/
https://www.gastrograph.com/blogs/gastronexus/quality-control-in-beer-production-part-2.html
 
I believe I’ve read that lower pH at each step is preferred (for IPAs at least). Hop utilization is supposed to increase with pH, brought produce harsher bitter notes.

Yeast strains will drop the pH during fermentation, depending on how much acid they produce (think S-04). Dry hopping will increase pH. You want to be below 4.5 finished pH.
 
There are advantages to targeting a modest pre-boil pH of around 5.4 and then adjusting the post-boil pH down to the 5.2 range with some form of acid addition. This is a common German brewery practice when brewing with high Pils malt content. The higher pH helps with DMS reduction and the lower pH aids the yeast in driving the beer pH to an acceptably low pH.

Of course, they use saurergut to push the post boil pH down, but you might consider any sort of acid. The post-boil wort still has buffering characteristics like the mash, so you should be able to use a program like Bru'n Water to estimate how much acid it will take to drop the post-boil wort pH that additional increment.
 
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