a little long winded, but interesting
01-used two big cans of "chenin" concentrate diluted to 5 gallons[ok]
02-SG measured 1.074 [boo]
03-raised SG to 1.092 with sugar [yeah]
04-used yeastfrom my supplier [ok]
05-fermented to completion with SG 0.992 [yeah]
06-transfer to secondary [logical]
07-taste it; decent but somewhattart [no problem]
08-vinometer 11.2 vol% [yeah]
09-pH is 2.88 [hmmmmm]
10-TA is 0.45 [hmmmmmmmm]
question: i use a bicarbonate method to measure total acid. ostensibly, the 0.45 is trueTA. however, this is the first time i have used this method, and the instructions say that this 0.45 is the tartrate only. they continue that to arrive at malate, i multiply by 1.17. a similar procedure gives me citrate.
i contacted my supplier and he says that the 0.45 is the TA that is used by all wineries, and is tartrate only. my problem is that i cannot imagine a trueTA [all 3 acids]of only0.45 giving me a pH of 2.88. i could imagine thispHbeing due to contribution fromall three acids, butthen i would expect the true TA to be higher. however, if i try to generate a true total TA by taking 0.45 [measured]+ 1.17x0.45 [calculated]+ 1.25+0.45 [calculated] it seems i get a true TA that is non-sense.
any thoughts???? sorry this is wordy!
01-used two big cans of "chenin" concentrate diluted to 5 gallons[ok]
02-SG measured 1.074 [boo]
03-raised SG to 1.092 with sugar [yeah]
04-used yeastfrom my supplier [ok]
05-fermented to completion with SG 0.992 [yeah]
06-transfer to secondary [logical]
07-taste it; decent but somewhattart [no problem]
08-vinometer 11.2 vol% [yeah]
09-pH is 2.88 [hmmmmm]
10-TA is 0.45 [hmmmmmmmm]
question: i use a bicarbonate method to measure total acid. ostensibly, the 0.45 is trueTA. however, this is the first time i have used this method, and the instructions say that this 0.45 is the tartrate only. they continue that to arrive at malate, i multiply by 1.17. a similar procedure gives me citrate.
i contacted my supplier and he says that the 0.45 is the TA that is used by all wineries, and is tartrate only. my problem is that i cannot imagine a trueTA [all 3 acids]of only0.45 giving me a pH of 2.88. i could imagine thispHbeing due to contribution fromall three acids, butthen i would expect the true TA to be higher. however, if i try to generate a true total TA by taking 0.45 [measured]+ 1.17x0.45 [calculated]+ 1.25+0.45 [calculated] it seems i get a true TA that is non-sense.
any thoughts???? sorry this is wordy!