Not to go too much off-topic, but I've been going crazy with pH lately. It certainly should be tracked throughout the entire process (If you're up for it). Especially with highly hopped beers. That small shift in pH can turn a dull harsh IPA into something bright and pleasant, or really bring out your malt flavors a bit more. It's something that could push that already good beer into a great beer.
I find targeting a lower pH in the boil for IPAs extracts brighter hop aromas and flavors with a less harsh bitterness. Most of the time, I will adjust during the pre boil so everything else falls in line and I land my final target pH without having to make any other adjustments. If i am using a lot of pilsner malt, then I may adjust towards the end of the boil (If needed) so the higher pH will help boil off DMS.
For my heavily hopped IPAs, I like to drop my my pre boil pH to about 4.8 - 4.9. My post boil pH usually stays about the same after all the kettle hop additions and sets me up to land around 4.2 - 4.3 final pH (post fermentation and dry hop). I like to drop the pH of my hoppy beers early. Not only to help extract bright hop aroma with less harsh bitterness, but to also lower the maillard reaction and keep the SRM on the lighter side. I like my IPAs to land around 4.2 - 4.3 final pH with an absolute max of. 4.5. I do find the lower final pH range has less astringentcy and lower hop burn after heavy dry hopping.
This is all my personal preference of course. YMMV.
Edit: All of my pH adjustments are made with phosphoric and lactic acid. Most of the time I'll use lactic in the mash, and then use phosphoric to adjust the kettle.
I came to the same conclusion, but from a different perspective and purpose. I shoot for a mash of ~vicinity pH 5.2 +/- 0.1. For my source water and typical grist bill I can reach this with consistency by adding .025-0.50 pounds acidulated malt. There’s enough buffering in my water to have that locked in at :10 minutes after beginning the mash.
Unless there’s some wild rise in pH at the beginning of boil, I don’t make adjustments at that time and let it ride. Where I’ve modified my process however is in targeting finished beer (end of fermentation/pre-packaging). There I’m wanting to have pH 4.0~4.5, depending on style of beer and alcohol content.
I need to comment that over the years I’d read numerous sources, taken copious notes (that I could often not decipher or remember the non-footnoted source) which I eventually copied, organized and formatted into a usable brew day reference. In my notebook (source unknown) is a pH guideline for finished beer target values that says: lagers - 3.9~4.1; ales - 4.0~4.2; Mild/Dark - 4.1~ 4.3. For Low/No alcohol beers: ALWAYS < pH 4.3~4.5.
There’s an additional note that “High pH = low stability (pH > 4.5~4.8.”
I apologize for not having references, since this compilation was just from notes meant for my own personal use, but I will say that they were from reliable sources and/or published articles. Doesn’t make ‘em bulletproof, but might get ‘em pass the bullsh*t vetting.
Anyway, I first got into this mode of monitoring pH of finished beer when I started attempting Lo/No alcohol brewing, and carried it over into my other brew sessions. Through trial and error I found that I could estimate the actual finished pH by making acid adjustments in the final minutes of the boil that resulted in the desired final values. As little as 5 ml to as much as 15 ml of lactic acid was giving me the final target numbers I was seeking.
The differences in the brightness as well as long term stability was noticeable, without being tart or bitter. It has been a positive influence in achieving better overall results.
But since the original thread topic was about bitterness, it struck me that the total IBUs in the recipe were ~60 total, which hardly seems excessive for an American IPA, or even a British IPA for that matter. For years I have been making my first bittering a FWH or First Wort Hopping addition. The lower sub-boil temperature isomerization of alpha acids seems to smooth out the heavy hop bite that can make some beers seem overly bitter.
As others have suggested, a closer examination of the water profile and grist bill might offer the necessary information about Cl:SO4 bitterness ratios, but that’s a whole subject for another day!
