pH - Dry hop adjustment & ascorbic acid

Dai Kide

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Adding dry hops will raise the pH but the calculator doesnt show it. Also, adding ascorbic acid to the mash, same issue.
 
Does pH matter much after fermentation?
 
Adding acid to the mash does not raise the pH- it lowers it. Are you adding it for pH adjustment, or for stability?

Dryhopping does change the pH of finished beer, but by such an insignificant amount (maybe 0.025 pH or so) and it would be nearly impossible to actually calculate that in software.
 
Yes. Lowering it can make a lifeless pale beer sparkle and raising it can make a harsh dark beer mellow.
Yes, but would a dry hop change it by much? Specifically, enough to make a difference?
 
Yes, but would a dry hop change it by much? Specifically, enough to make a difference?
Not sure. If the bitterness goes harsh, maybe raise the pH a bit.
 
Yes, but would a dry hop change it by much? Specifically, enough to make a difference?
Dry hopping does raise pH. I have seen as high as .2. pH is very important in a finished beer, most times it is dependent on the yeast strain. That's why IPA/PA made with a higher acid producing yeast such as Kolsch (K97, etc) and some English yeasts (as oppose to a less acid producing yeast like Chico), will produce a smoother more enjoyable bitterness. The malt flavors can also be muted by a high pH. I consider anything above a pH of 4.5 in a finished as getting too high. The lowest pH are usually Kolsch yeasts that drop it to as low as 3.9. I have found Chico strains that land 4.4-4.6. Lagers are somewhere between 4.3-4.4.

I think it would be very difficult to accurately predict the rise in pH from dry hopping. The hops change so much from farm to farm and year to year.
 
http://scottjanish.com/a-look-at-ph-in-hoppy-beers/

It does look like pH changes from dry hopping is measurable, and nearly linear corresponding to hopping rate but it doesn't seem to have been explored yet how dependent that function is on the initial beer pH before dry hopping which it almost certainly is to a significant degree.

At the moment the only pH tracked in the software is the MASH pH, not the boil pH, or the finished beer pH. In order to get an accurate finished beer pH, yeast manufacturers would need to report that info in a consistent way and they can't even agree on attenuation information... As a result this is not something I think we can support at the moment.
 

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