Kiwi / Kiwi-Strawberry wine too acidic

[patricksievert]

I didn't know what I was doing when I started this wine 6 months ago, and I just followed a recipe (1 tsp of acid blend in 3 gallons of must). Now, after adding and F-pac and going through multiple rackings, my wine is nice and clear and I was going to backsweeten it. I tested the TA, and the acidity is around 1.0%, and the taste of the wine reflects it. Everything I've read says to adjust the acidity before fermentation if at all possible.

So now I'm not sure where to go from here. Any suggestions?

 

[saramc]

Post ferment you can consider potassium bicarb/potassium carbonate....check out http://vinoenology.com/calculators/acid-addition/

Just remember to start with a sample before whacking the whole batch. And remember that backsweetening will help balance too. It wasn't the acid blend so much as it was the nature of the fruit.

 

[Turock]

Oh, you have to be careful not to use too much potassium carbonate. It can damage the flavor if you have to move the PH several tenths. It's only supposed to be used for TWEAKING.

This is why I keep preaching about new winemakers starting off the right way--buying a PH meter and adjusting PH pre-ferment.

Blending is another option. Maybe with something like a Reisling that won't take away the kiwi/strawberry flavor. Another option is to make another batch and adjust the acids up so that when you blend the acidic wine to it, it will be drinkable. Or making mead, and blending the 2 together.

 

[patricksievert]

Thanks for the replies. I'm leaning toward making a strawberry wine with a lower acidity and blending the two, at least with some of it. Maybe I'll just really oversweeten a gallon of it, try to lower the acidity with carbonate on another gallon, and blend a third...

 

[Runningwolf]

Patrick, at this point I would do one of two things. Either blend with a less acidic wine or sweeten it to balance it. At this point if I didn't have another like wine to use I would do bench trails with sugar. Do 100 ml's at a time. If you would normally sweeten this to about 4% residue sugar you could probably take it up to around 6-7% rs. You'll definitely be adding a lot more sugar but it won't taste like it and the taste will be balanced out.

I would take this route any day over adding water before fermentation to balance acid and diluting my juice.

 

[Julie]

I agree with Dan, you need to backsweeten first then see if the wine is too acidic.

 

[saramc]

And don't forget to taste it at the serving temp, it can change the amt of sugar you want to add.

 

[Turock]

The problem I see with sweetening to reduce the perception of acidity is that it may take a lot of sugar to accomplish that---and then you tamp down the flavor. So bench test, before commiting to a lot of sugar.