Beer Infused Cheese & pH... ?

[bansidhe]

I made the Beer Infused Cheese from NE Cheesemaking today. Its mot marked as a cheddar but based on the direction it seems maybe its "like" a stirred curd cheddar...  Anyway, I have a few questions concerning pH and timing.

The directions say to stir 30-45 main rating temp from 88 to 102.  When at 102, stir another 30 minutes.
Then drain for 30
Then soak in beer for 45
Then salt

The pH when I drained was 6.2 and 6.1 at the end of draining.  If the trend continues (I am trying to keep the curds warm) I expect a Ph of about 6-6.1 after the beer soak.  It seems to me, I want a Ph closer to 5.5-5.4 when I salt.


What does one do?  I dont want the curds so dry they wont knit so am reluctant to just wait for a few hours.

Of course, I am assuming pH should be that but I dont really KNOW.

Actually, I found the beer has a pH of about 4.5....  How would one even calculate pH of the curds in this case?