First Try, ZOMG High Acid on the Baco.

[Ebonheart]

First Post! Hi, my wife and I decided to give home winemaking a try, and grabbed 6 gallons of Baco Noir juice and 6 Gallons of DeChaunac juice from New York. I've completed 7 days of bucket fermentation. I transferred the juice into carboys yesterday. The DeChaunac is happily bubbling away in the airlock, the hydrometer was showing around 1.10 in the bucket. The taste and nose of the bottom contents of the DeChaunac makes me think this'll be a really decent wine. The Baco Noir tapped in at 1.010 in the bucket, and, after sitting overnight, is occasionally bubbling, every minute or so. It has a distinct Baco nose on it, and WOW, high acid! I'd thought that there was something wrong with it until I opened an Ohio Baco to test, and realized that it was nearly identical, but higher acid.

So my theory is that the yeast in the Baco was very vigorous and that's why the reading was so low? Anyone with Baco experience have any advice on it? Will the acid levels g down during secondary fermentation, or is this something I'll have to address after I rack it? I'm thinking of using american oak staves on after I rack it as well, and wondering if that'll hide or reduce the acids a bit?

 

[JohnT]

Acid tests will change before, during, and after fermentation.

Think about it.. Before fermentation, there may be a lot of particulate in the sample which, if you are doing a TA test, can throw off your readings. During fermentation, you will have even more, and also the fermentation process itself can change your acid levels as well. Don't even get me started about malolactic fermentation.

My approach is to get the acid at a resonable level prior to ferment, then wait until fermentation is complete to fin tune/adjust the acid to where i want to keep it.