Tart Muscadine Wine

[KLjones]

I am making my first batch of muscadine wine and in it's secondary fermentation stage it is very tart. I have 6 gallons of wine which started from 37 lbs of muscadine, 8lbs of sugar, 10pts of bottled water, 3tsp pectin, 6 tsp of nutrient and 6 campden tablets. The starting SG was 1.100. I have racked it to the secondary fermenter and since re-racked it adding 1 1/2 tsp of stabilizer. The titratable acid is about 9. I wanted a dry to semi-sweet finished wine. I am not sure if this will problem will solve itself or if I should take some action. I plan to add sugar before bottling to sweeten it back a bit, will that fix the tart issue? 2 weeks ago it was less tart with a titratable acid level of about 8.

 

[Rodnboro]

Your TA is on the high side. I would shoot for .6 to .8. With the high ABV, aging and sweetening will also help. I have scaled back my ABV on muscadine to 10 to 11% and sweeten to 1.010. Potassium bicarbonate can be used after fermentation to reduce the acid. I don't know the amounts, but calcium carbonate which is used before fermentation is approximately 1 teaspoon per gallon to reduce TA .1%. Maybe more experienced muscadine makers will respond for more help.

 

[olusteebus]

I brought my muscadine and scuppernong wine to a final sg of 1.010. I don't think muscadine is good dry. I also used glycerin on one batch and it improved it a great deal.

Muscadine is very acidic

 

[garymc]

1. I try not to keep my muscadine on the skins as long as I might with another type of wine. You didn't say how long it was in the primary, but shortening that time compared to another typical wine helps, in my opinion.
2. Some people use less fruit/more water in an effort to reduce acidity. I've been using 20 pounds for 5 gallons of finished wine. However, I've read of others using more, and sometimes much more fruit. So I'm in the process of trying 40 pounds in 6 gallons. I don't know how this is going to work for me, but we'll see.
3. I use Lalvin 71b-1122 yeast on my muscadine wine because it eats malic acid.
4. Aging is supposed to be more beneficial for muscadine wine than some others. I get lots of crystals in my carboys and sometimes in my bottles, so expect the wine to improve with age.
5. I almost forgot. A lot of problems in a wine can be covered by sweetening. I've made some dry muscadine wine, but most people are looking to bring out the taste of the muscadines which are sweet. So the backsweetening will help.

 

[KLjones]

Thanks for the tips. Forgive the lack of knowledge, this is my first batch In order to raise the SG after fermentation do I only need to add sugar in form of a simple syrup?

The must was in the primary for 5 days. 24 hours before the yeast was added and 4 days after before moving to the secondary.

 

[Julie]

Thanks for the tips. Forgive the lack of knowledge, this is my first batch In order to raise the SG after fermentation do I only need to add sugar in form of a simple syrup?

The must was in the primary for 5 days. 24 hours before the yeast was added and 4 days after before moving to the secondary.

if you are talking about backsweetening, you need to add k-meta and sorbate and I would take some wine out, warm that up and disolve the sugar into that and add it back.

 

[KLjones]

Thanks for all suggestions. Stabilizing and adding sugar did the trick. I bottled this yesterday and it turned out pretty well.