Pepper Jack dry and crumbly

[tnbquilt]

I have a 6 month old pepper jack that tastes good, but the texture is not right. I was searching around for ph markers to see if that was my problem and I and found a post that had ph markers listed. The post was from Sailor Con Queso and it said

At Rennet - 6.5
At Curd Cut - 6.45
After Cooking - 6.3
At Draining - 6.2-6.3
At Hooping - 5.4
After Pressing - 5.1-5.4

I was going to reply to the post but the site said that it was an old post and I should start a new thread.

My question is if you drain the cheese at 6.2 to 6.3, then you salt it and put it in the hoop, what made the ph level change to 5.4? There is not any more heating or sitting between the draining and the hooping point.
Does the salting process change the ph?

[linuxboy]

Bacteria do not stop producing acid just because the temp is lower.