I am about to bottle a VR Zinfandel and noticed it is too tart. In looking through my notes from last year, I noticed that I did acid testing prefermentation and added some tartaric acid. This is what happens when you've been making only fresh grape and fruit wines for 12 years before starting kits. As you kit winemakers probably know, acid testing prefermentation is a mistake for kits. According to Tim Vandergrift in an article in Winemaker Magazine:
Acid testing cannot be done in a pre-fermentation wine kit, as the acids are bound to the sugars in the must by the pasteurizing process, making the readings artificially low.
Apparently, I should not have done what I did. My reading was artificially low and I overshot the best acid level by making the adjustment. It would be nice if the kit instructions warned fresh grape winemaker's like me about this matter.
Edited by: dfwwino
Acid testing cannot be done in a pre-fermentation wine kit, as the acids are bound to the sugars in the must by the pasteurizing process, making the readings artificially low.
Apparently, I should not have done what I did. My reading was artificially low and I overshot the best acid level by making the adjustment. It would be nice if the kit instructions warned fresh grape winemaker's like me about this matter.
Edited by: dfwwino