High acid - Low sugar

[mikejapan]

I just checked acid and sugar in my frontenac grapes that are still on the vines. Brix is 17, PH is 2.95 and T.A was at 2.8 when I ran out of hydroxide. I was measuring T.A. With the PH meter and at that point PH was 6.5 so I still had a way to go. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to make corrections in order to make some decent wine?


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[GreginND]

Make a sweeter rosé?

 

[mikejapan]

Thanks for the reply, Greg. So if I ferment just the juice with 71b and then do ML it just might turn out O.K.?


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[TonyR]

Had the same thing with my Frontenac Gris this year. The brix got to 22 but the acid was so high that when you ate a berry your mouth actually puckered. I don't care for sweet wine so i did not pick those grapes just left them for the critters. For me i blame it on the summer, it was cold and rainy, a lot of nights in July and August it was in the 40's. Lets hope for much better luck next Summer.

 

[mikejapan]

Had the same thing with my Frontenac Gris this year. The brix got to 22 but the acid was so high that when you ate a berry your mouth actually puckered. I don't care for sweet wine so i did not pick those grapes just left them for the critters. For me i blame it on the summer, it was cold and rainy, a lot of nights in July and August it was in the 40's. Lets hope for much better luck next Summer.

Maybe I'll just add sugar and make a sweet Rose and give it to my sweet wine friends. The last two years here in east central Wisconsin have had pretty cool summers, but this has been the worst.


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[mikejapan]

Had the same thing with my Frontenac Gris this year. The brix got to 22 but the acid was so high that when you ate a berry your mouth actually puckered. I don't care for sweet wine so i did not pick those grapes just left them for the critters. For me i blame it on the summer, it was cold and rainy, a lot of nights in July and August it was in the 40's. Lets hope for much better luck next Summer.

Been a cold summer here too. Looks like sweet rose this year for presents.


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[grapeman]

I have my doubts that wine from grapes that unripe and full of acid will even make a drinkable sweet rose. 2.8 is 28 g/L TA, that is twice as high as desireable and you hadn't even reached the end point yet. I don't think mlb will have much of a chance getting started with a very low pH. If it is truly 2.95 it might, but I doubt that is correct with that high of a TA. Are you sure the meter was calibrated with fresh reagent?

 

[Deezil]

Could you cold-stabilize it pre-fermentation to drop the acidity some? Wont fix things entirely, but..

 

[mikejapan]

O.K. Recalibrated meter with fresh regent and bought fresh hydroxide. PH 2.92 and TA (checked twice) 30 and 31 g/l. Looks like 25 vines full of bird food this year unless somebody has a better idea.


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[TonyR]

Just an idea, you could make it into a port, at least some of it. That will have enough sugar that it will hide the high acid. Even if you are not wild about drinking port there are a lot of cooking recipes that call for sherry or marsala just use your port instead. If you have a place to keep it outside over the winter that will all so help some. This is one of the reasons i pulled 28 Frontenac vines and replaced with Petite Pearl.
Good luck. TonyR

 

[mikejapan]

You know the petite pearl really sounds great. I wonder if grafting would be an option? It seems like that would be much easier than pulling out the vines, even though I only have 28 frontenac vines.



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[JohnT]

30 to 31 grams/liter??? Let the birds have puckered lips.

 

[HillPeople]

I just recently corrected some puckery Frontenac.
It was pH 2.9, TA 9.5, 19 Bx after crushing.
Made a simple syrup in 1/2 gal spring water to take it up to 1.096 SG.
Treated 1/3 the must with Calcium Carbonate and recombined.
Must after treatment- SG 1.096, TA 7, pH 3.4
Fermented it on RC 212 to .992.
It's going to be a good one.

But, if your TA is really 30? I don't now what you could do about that. I've never seen that high a reading.

 

[mikejapan]

Those damn robins are getting puckered asses from pellets already. I'm adding potassium bicarbonate and making a simple syrup to add also. I'm fermenting a bucket of juice with a gallon of grape juice added and the syrup and two buckets on the skins with syrup added. Did you have much of a problem with foliar phlloxera?


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[HillPeople]

Those damn robins are getting puckered asses from pellets already. I'm adding potassium bicarbonate and making a simple syrup to add also. I'm fermenting a bucket of juice with a gallon of grape juice added and the syrup and two buckets on the skins with syrup added. Did you have much of a problem with foliar phlloxera?


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Only on a few of the LaCrescents, none on the Marquettes or Frontenacs. Lots of Japanese beetles everywhere and Black Rot on the Louise Swensons. Wet August, very warm September and no hard frost yet even as of today, 10/28 up here in the White Mountains of NH.

I harvested the Frontenacs on 9/19, but probably should have let them go another week or two. I harvested the rest on 10/3, but could have gone another week on them as well.