Using A Acid Meter Before Bottling

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critterhunter

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We don't own a Hydrometer or Acid Meter yet since this is our first try. Anyway, the pear wine tastes good (but dry) and we plan to sugar it up before bottling along with Sorbate and a campden tablet to prevent re-fermation (only 1 tablet in a 6.5 gallong Carboy to stop it along with the Sorbate?).

We'd at least like to adjust the acid of this wine. So what am I shooting for and how do I read it? I would assume we'd do this before sugaring it up?

And, is there any way to test alchohol content with a Hydrometer if we didn't use one at the start? We're curious to know how much alchohol is in there, but we did use 10 pounds of sugar, 30 pounds of pears, and 6 pounds of white rasins. Since the wine doesn't taste sweet I would assume all that sugar has been converted to alchohol? Any idea what content it might be?
 
We don't own a Hydrometer or Acid Meter yet since this is our first try. Anyway, the pear wine tastes good (but dry) and we plan to sugar it up before bottling along with Sorbate and a campden tablet to prevent re-fermation (only 1 tablet in a 6.5 gallong Carboy to stop it along with the Sorbate?).

We'd at least like to adjust the acid of this wine. So what am I shooting for and how do I read it? I would assume we'd do this before sugaring it up?

And, is there any way to test alchohol content with a Hydrometer if we didn't use one at the start? We're curious to know how much alchohol is in there, but we did use 10 pounds of sugar, 30 pounds of pears, and 6 pounds of white rasins. Since the wine doesn't taste sweet I would assume all that sugar has been converted to alchohol? Any idea what content it might be?

I would recomend getting an acid titration kit. They only cost about $7

If you wanted an acurate assessment of the APV after the fact, you are gonna spend some big bucks. You could always purchase a capilary kit (about 3$) but they only work at very specific temps and are, even still, rather unreliable.
 
Actually you CAN get an alcohol reading even if you do not know the start SG.

1) take a sample of your must, lets say 250 ml

2) take a hydrometer reading from that sample

3) now boil the sample down to half the volume

4) add water till you have the original volume (250 ml) back

5) now you have your wine without any alcohol in it

6) take another hydrometer reading

Now take the first and the last reading and put it in the calculation program found here:

http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/fermcalc_applet.html

Look for the alcohol tab and then for the boiling-off method.

That should give you a fairly accurate reading.

I am going to do a multiple-story entry on my web-log within a shoirt time about all different ways to measure alcohol.

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/

Luc
 
Cool technique! Never thought of that. Could you also say to boil for 5 minutes since alcohol boils at approx 110 degrees and water at 212???
 
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