pH do I need to adjust?

[Fermator]

I'm about two weeks in into fermentation already racked off the must. Ph is 3.09 best I can tell from my pocket meter. Should I blend calcium carbonate. Do I need to add a lactic acid bacteria culture is that something normally done?

This is a wild mustang grape wine

 

[ceeaton]

I'm about two weeks in into fermentation already racked off the must. Ph is 3.09 best I can tell from my pocket meter. Should I blend calcium carbonate. Do I need to add a lactic acid bacteria culture is that something normally done?

This is a wild mustang grape wine

I don't know much about mustang grapes. My concern is that you degassed the sample you used to check the pH as the CO2 in solution can skew the results. If you didn't, take some wine, put it in a closed vessel and shake the living s**t out of it to get the CO2 to release from solution, then retest. Post the results and I'll let others comment on what a good range is for that type of grape.

 

[salcoco]

wait until wine clears before you try any measurements of value or adjustments. what was the starting ph? post fermentation uses potassium carbonate.

 

[NorCal]

How does it taste? Are you planning of doing mlf? Are you going to back sweeten?

 

[Fermator]

i will try again bust mustangs are known for being acidic they burn your hands just picking them.

 

[Fermator]

It's very tart VERY tart

 

[Fermator]

I finished primary fermentation and then added sugar per recipe. The one with the stratification is the one I sampled for ph. The sg. is 1.001 it's strange it went from looking like the other one to separated in a few hours.

 

[Fermator]

How does it taste? Are you planning of doing mlf? Are you going to back sweeten?

That's part of my question... should I?

 

[NorCal]

Depends on what you are trying to achieve. Wine is all about balance and preference. You want wine to be below 3.7 for microbial stability, you are well below that, so now it's all about taste. If you like it, don't do anything. If it's too tart, you can try to reduce the acid, or sweeten.

 

[Fermator]

Do I need to worry about mlf or will it do it itself

 

[Ajmassa]

Do I need to worry about mlf or will it do it itself

It could go through MLF by itself. And just as easily not-especially if you hit it with sulfite soon. I don't know anything about mustang, but if it's a full bodied astringent red, then MLF seems like it could benefit the wine, keeping it from being too acidic. (Or would MLF take away the characteristics which make mustang unique??)
Why not go for it and add some malo soon? Couldn't hurt right?

 

[Fermator]

Thanks that's probably what I will do this is my first shot at it I will have four batches going soon and I guess I will try it on at least one.

 

[NorCal]

I'll gain .1-.2 pH when I go through mlf. If you want to do it, I would not leave it to chance and inoculate yourself.

 

[Fermator]

Recommendations on lactic bacteria to use as in where to get it from/ brand never done it before

 

[ibglowin]

No chance at all this wine goes through MLF in any way shape or form at that pH.

Do I need to worry about mlf or will it do it itself

 

[Ajmassa]

I keep a hard copy of a morewine catalog in my office (the bathroom) and went back to check remember seeing malo with a super low ph tolerance.
I found it. The Wyeast 4007 surprisingly tolerates as low as 2.9 ph.

 

[stickman]

I'm no expert on wild Mustang wine, but it appears it is a rather special case due to the very high acidity that is typical of this grape. You indicated you added sugar per recipe; what recipe did you use? The following site has several you can use for comparison.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/mustang.asp

 

[Fermator]

I used the first 5 gallon recipe on that page. I have one with Montrachet and one with llavin. It's weird the llavin stopped fermenting and cleared up and the Montrachet batch is still hazy and actively fermenting you can tell the two apart if you look at the pictures. Should I be concerned the llavin batch halted or did it just go a lot faster?

 

[NorCal]

@ibglowin has a good point. Look at the specs of the mlf, most need >3.2, there are some that are rated to work at 3.0 (PN4), but you can see by the chart it is not a good environment for the bacteria.

 

[ibglowin]

The other thing is MLB is a nuance subtle change in acid concentration and flavor. You need much more than that with this wine. You need to drop loads of acid which there is only one way to do that.