Chile bucket PH

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zadvocate

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I tested the pH on myChardonnay bucket and it was around 4.15. Granted the juice was 52°, my local supplier said not to adjust it. I didn’t have time to wait for to warm up I did stir it but maybe not enough. I’m going to check it in a few days just wondering what others experience was with the pH on these juice buckets from Chile.
 
That sounds outrageously high. Have you calibrated the pH meter with fresh pH standards? Temperature will shift it less than 0.1.

How does it taste? You will also want to measure the TA. Generally you will add (or neutralize) acid to bring the TA in line with your target, while making sure you don't send the pH too high.
 
I agree it seems outrageously high. I did to calibrate the pH meter with two packets of solution I had laying around. Granted they could have been to old also. I’m just going to wait and see.

Found this incase anyone else wonders about this.

The freezing process causes tartaric acid in the musts or juices to form salts and precipitate to the bottom of the pails as cream of tartar. Because of this precipitation of the tartaric acid, as well as the separation formed by the other components in our frozen grapes we insist that you stir your musts and juices extremely well before doing any analysis. After stirring your thawed must or juice in the pail, pour this into your fermentor and stir in some more. Make sure to scrape out and add all the sticky stuff that remains in the pails into your fermentor and then stir your must or juice some more. Stir, stir, stir. The tartaric acid will not stabilize until after fermentation.

Total acidity is the concentration of tartaric acid in grams per 100 milliliters of solution. Tartaric acid is unstable in cold and alcoholic environments. The ph of your must, juice or wine will be affected by the state of tartaric acid. If you measure the total acidity and ph of your must soon after thawing your pails, you will see that the TA is low and the ph is high when compared to Brehm vineyard’s harvest stats posted on the grape label of your varietal.

For white juice, the grape label should be accurate, except for the effects of the cold on the tartaric acid. White juice, after thawing, will show a lower overall total acidity and higher ph due to the instability of the tartaric acid. This cream of tartar will dissolve during fermentation.
 
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For white juice, the grape label should be accurate, except for the effects of the cold on the tartaric acid. White juice, after thawing, will show a lower overall total acidity and higher ph due to the instability of the tartaric acid. This cream of tartar will dissolve during fermentation.

My Riesling bucket was around 4.0. It did have a bunch of precipitate on the bottom of the bucket (could see all the way to the bottom of the juice bucket). I've stirred it up and will wait until after fermentation to adjust. Hard to tell by tasting if there is really a problem as the high sugar content masks the acidity.
 
So I cleaned my prob and added new batteries. Primary is over Nd now they are sitting doing MLF. Here are my numbers:
Vigioner. PH 3.35. TA 5
Chard. PH 3.35. TA 5
Carmenere PH 3.5. TA 6.8

I Think the numbers are OK would like a little more acid in the whites but I’ll see how they taste after MLf and adjust accordingly.
 
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