When to adjust TA?

Hey folks, at what point in the winemaking process is TA tested? Once tested, do you adjust immediately?

Any recommendations for relatively inexpensive but accurate test kits?

Thanks

Always test upfront and make adjustments beforehand. Better integration of the acids into the wine. Any of the inexpensive TA kits from places like more wine are fine but you will want to use a pH meter for better accuracy.

best time is at crush or preferment. adjust immediately. best to buy ph meter and test solvents for a titration test. should be able to purchase at your local wine supply shop.

Ok, great.. so once I start crushing, I can test, and then immediately adjust?

What I do is test up front, and adjust to the point where my TA is up over .55. IMHO, this is close enough.

Freshly crushed must has too many variables. Within the juice there is pulp/spoil that will throw off any guess at a true volume. For this reason, I do two adjustments. One adjustment (preferment) to get close, then one adjustment post ferment (when wine first clears up) to get the acid level dialed in.

JohnT said:

What I do is test up front, and adjust to the point where my TA is up over .55. IMHO, this is close enough.

Freshly crushed must has too many variables. Within the juice there is pulp/spoil that will throw off any guess at a true volume. For this reason, I do two adjustments. One adjustment (preferment) to get close, then one adjustment post ferment (when wine first clears up) to get the acid level dialed in.

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Sorry, but i am a bit of a dummy when it comes to all the terminology.. what do you mean by up front? Are you talking about testing a fresh grape cluster?

I am saying that once you complete crushing your grapes, give an adjustment (if needed) to be just over .55 ta. Once fermentation is complete: when the wine clears, and you can extract a more pure sample, and you know the exact volume of wine, make a second adjustment to bring it up to your preferred level.

You keep talking about "bringing it up to .55" as if that's the norm. *sigh* My problem is trying to reduce it from 1.2 or more.

1.2?? SANTA MARIA!!!!

gosh that is high.

As a standard, the grapes I purchase are always low. I chalk this up to the delay from shipping and purchasing, allowing the grapes to ripen more (higher brix, but lower acid).

Are you sure of the TA readings? That seems crazy high!

Some of the cold hardy hybrid grapes have crazy high acid levels John.

Yes, sometimes we are lucky if we can get the pH over 3.0 and the TA below 1.0.

.. And what kind of brix levels go with that high level of acid?

In terms of adjustments, one thing I would add, as you dial in a target pH (per taste) and brix....We crushed our grapes and immediately took a pH reading and brix reading. Our Barbera tested at 3.39 pH and 28 brix. We added water to adjust it to 3.46 pH and 25.5 brix. The 25.5 was our actual target. The next day, the brix came in at 26.5, a full point up. This rise in measured sugar is even more noticeable with Zin. Last year's Zin jumped several brix after the initial crush measure. I was told that some varietals like Zin have a good amount of sugar still in their skins that isn't part of the juice until it gradually releases these in the hours after crush. So, I guess this means when adjusting for brix, it may be best to possibly make a second tweak the next day after crush.

We get fairly consistent Brix of around 25 with Marquette, and i think that is the highest Brix that we get for the grapes that we test, though that's just off my memory without the numbers in front of me.
With that we can get some high TAs, most of the cold hardy hybrid programs are pretty happy if the TA is below 1!
but i am meaning with red wines, i am less familiar with the "white" wine grapes that we test.