May have made a mistake

[Swede]

This just occured to me... the water we have isn't very good where I live (city water) and has a prettyhigh chlorine content so I didn't want to use any tap water to make wine with. (My wife and I don't even drink it.) So I used bottled water, and as suggested Ifound some that was a natural spring water that had trace mineral elements in it as opposed to super pure filtered water.




However, as I look at the bottle now it says it's a naturally high alkaline artesian spring water, and says pH9 in small letters on the side. The kit I made only had about a gallon or so of concentrate so I had to add quite a bit of water. It's percolating away quite nicely so it's fine in that sense.


Is this going to make the wine kind of flat for being way to alkaline and not enough acid in it? I'll probably need to buy a acid test kit so I can check this in the future. Can I correct this problem after primary fermentation has completed or is it not something I should be too concerned about?


-Kelly

 

[bmckee56]

Your regular tap water is going to be over 7 close to 8 on the PH scale, possibly higher than that even depending on location. The kits are designed for the addition of water, so I wouldn't sweat it to much. If you have a PH meter, you can test the wine later to determine if you need to make adjustments.


I ain't no expert now, so this is only my opinion on the matter.


Salute!

 

[grapeman]

You should be alright Swede, but that kit will likely be a bit thin with only a gallon of concentrate. Even most low end kits are 7.5 liters or more which is about 2 gallons. You probably should reconsider that water as a source for future kits to eliminate those potential problems.

 

[Swede]

I'm sorry, that was actually 6 liters in the kit, not 4. It's the Blueberry Shiraz found here on the main site.


I went down to our local water supply place and picked up some Mountain Spring water from Arkansas in a 5-gallon container so I'm set for the next and future batches. (http://www.mountainvalleyspring.com/faqs.html) It says it has a pH of 8.3 and is considered moderately alkaline.

 

[grapeman]

That sounds better! Good luck with this one and all future kits.

 

[Swede]

Thank you!

 

[PeterZ]

I wouldn't worry about it. One of the biggest factors in pH vs alkalinity is buffering factor. Water has no buffering, so if you take a gallon of distilled water and add a drop of NaOH the pH will shoot up. Take a gallon of seawater, which has lots of buffering and add a drop of NaOH and the pH change will be undetectable.


Likewise, with a wine concentrate you have a lot of buffering, so the small amount of alkalinity in the water that raised the pH of the water will be lost in the wine.

 

[Swede]

Thanks - I'm not going to worry about it then. I sure am anxious to see how it turns out. Tested it last night after 3 days and it's down to 1.030 already. I'm going to need a support group I think just to get through my first batch.