Chardonnay frozen crushed grapes

Decided to start a new thread.
Finally pressed the 3 buckets, around 12 gallons of juice.
Added Opti white.

SG= ~1.108
PH= ~3.5x
TA= ~.4x

TA is not very accurate. Measured with PH55 meter, used 15ml of juice in a glass container, then slowly added NaOH .2N solution, 1ml at a time but at 5ml overshot a bit and PH was showing high in the 8.x

So assume the TA may be around .4x

If the math is correct, this TA may be a little low but I don't have tartaric acid.....so I pitched D47.

What do you guys think? @ibglowin
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Definitely needs a little acid, according to the numbers.

Congrats on your first press!

Wonder if ok to add tartaric acid tomorrow evening (fermentation already started) when I can get it?
The moral is to adjust prior to fermentation but this juice could not wait longer.....already turning a bit brown.

I guess I would have run a 2nd TA test and not overshot it. I would have also had Tartaric acid on hand before pitching the yeast. pH seems high and TA seems low. Always best to adjust before hand but you can adjust afterwards as a last recourse.

Use the Morewine Guide to White Wine Manual.

Pics of the buckets...

Mike, would you do add tartaric within 24 hours or let it rip to finish fermentation and then add? I assume I can try another TA test in the morning (around 10 hours after pitching yeast) and then add a bit of tartaric by late afternoon?

I will do mlf on it too.

Retested TA and use 4ml of .2 solution plus a couple drops.

So it seems to be define tell in the .4x

The question now is how many grams of tartaric ballpark per 6gal?

Well, that depends on what you are after. There are some recommended ranges for wine styles, but in the end it will come down to taste. The method I would follow would be to take a sample and add tartaric to it until it taste like that it would be good that way dry.. And then I would scale up to the full sized batch. Perhaps undershoot what you think it will need just to be safe.

According to MoreWine: "3.8g per gallon adjusts acidity by +.1%. As a note: some tartaric acid will drop out of suspension as potassium bitartrate if you are doing any cold stabilization. You might want to re-test total acidity after cold stabilization."

Many people would suggest adding half as much as you calculate is needed. Then retest.

I need to check the appropriate ph range recommend for whites, I think I will be looking for PH ~3.3

You don't really adjust to PH, you adjust to TA which is more closely linked to taste ( and then only to your taste using established ranges as guidelines). Then you adjust your sulfite additions to your PH.

Once you have fermentation going CO2 is being produced which will skew your numbers. Unless you have little to no activity I would be inclined to just wait it out.

geek said:

Mike, would you do add tartaric within 24 hours or let it rip to finish fermentation and then add? I assume I can try another TA test in the morning (around 10 hours after pitching yeast) and then add a bit of tartaric by late afternoon?

I will do mlf on it too.

Click to expand...

Ideally it's a balancing act between the two but sometimes the must just doesn't want to cooperate on both sides so I add acid trying to dial the TA in while watching the pH. If you reach the upper level of TA you have to decide using your taste buds as to can you possible add more or not. Whites having lower pH's than reds for the most part can take a bit more acid in fact I like my whites crisp and that means a bit more acid than normal. Reds not so crisp.

seth8530 said:

You don't really adjust to PH, you adjust to TA which is more closely linked to taste ( and then only to your taste using established ranges as guidelines). Then you adjust your sulfite additions to your PH.

Click to expand...

This morning there was no activity at all, hoping it won't kick in by this afternoon so I can add some tartaric.
I won't go crazy, I will add even if the numbers are not perfect, I think my goal would be to add TA to raise it in the .7 or so and lower the PH to the 3.3x or so.

We'll see.....

Did you have solids that did not dissolve when you thawed the buckets? Did you only add pressed juice to your barrel?

Only pressed juice.

Hoping for the best...

Added like 4tsp tartaric and brought PH to 3.32
Will check TA later tonight.

Lots of sediment making the juice brown...

No yeast activity yet...seems like D47 starts low, the juice temp around 65F

Again...hoping for the best...

What was your reasoning behind 4 tsp?

You do realize that if your starting SG is correct t 1.108 and you ferment to dry you will wen up with a Chardonnay at ~ 15.2% ABV which is off the charts (high).

Yeah, thought about it, too late for acidulated water??

Yeast has no signs of activity at all yet.