Adding tartaric acid to fortified wine.

[markb1983]

Hello! I am in need of some assistance. I fortified 6 gallons of syrah wine with 2 1.5 liters of VSOP plus one 750 ml. I tasted the fortified wine and its good but its not quite what a port tastes like. I took a reading and noticed that my final brix is low around 2. I measured a commercial port and its around 7 to 10. Another member stated that the brandy drops the tartaric acid.


How much acid should i add to this wine? What can I do to increase a traditional ruby port taste?


Thanks!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Do an acid test on the port also and see where it is at if this is the one you are trying to copy? WVMJ

 

[WellingtonToad]

Personally, I would not be so worried about the acidity of the fortified. It needs to be way off to have a significantly negative effect. I would focus on the sugar content. A Brix of 2 is really dry and would not be what you are accustomed to.
First step would be to take a sample and increase the Brix to an acceptable level. Sorry can't give any guidance as we all have different tastes. My preference would be to using an F-pac or a cordial, even grape juice concentrate.
The best way I know is with a flyte of glasses. Using 5 or 6 glasses, for me a sample of 1 litre (you would use a quart). I would add 30ml (a shot glass) of syrup, and measure the S.G. Pour 30ml into a glass and taste the mixture. Add another 30 ml to the mixture and measure S.G. Pour into the next glass and taste. Remember to label the glasses. Repeat until it gets too sweet. The sweetness you want is the one before the one that was too sweet.
Good luck.
With the flavour acceptable, check the S.G. Then change everything to that S.G.

 

[Runningwolf]

A hydrometer will not give you a true reading of residual sugar after fermentation. I would think though taking a reading of a bottle you like and the bottle you're making you could closely duplicate the amount. The alcohol is usually around 19%. Brandy is alcohol, I have never seen it drop tataric acid.

 

[sour_grapes]

I have very little experience, so take this for what little this piece of information is worth. In the few batches of port-style fortified wine I have made, I wound up sweetening to SG=1.010 (and fortified to 20% ABV) to enjoy the taste. I believe a triple-scale hydrometer would report this as about 3 Brix.

 

[ibglowin]

I said adding 5-6 bottles of Brandy to a wine will lower that wines overall TA, I did not say it would make tartaric acid drop out of solution.

 

[markb1983]

I was thinking of splitting the batch into 1 6 gallon and one 5 gallon maybe adding a little more wine and simple syrup? Thoughts? I did purchase Tartaric acid yesterday also.

 

[WellingtonToad]

I don't like the thought of using simple syrup. It dilutes the flavour, won't taste as good as it could. I even use Ribena concentrate with good results. You may prefer Grape concentrate though.

 

[markb1983]

Wow, im not familiar with Ribena. Ibglowin suggested using another type of concentrate. LOL If i only knew now what I knew then.... I would ferment to a certain point then dump in the booze. Totally skipping the back sweetening process.