Problem with Muscadine Wine

[wildridge]

Hi folks,

I'm new to the forum. I've ordered from George before so I decided to join and post my question here. I'm still new to wine making. I've fermented a kit very succesfully, but I'm having a problem with my first attempt at muscadine wine.

The wine is very very tart. I added what I thought was the right amount of water and the right amount of sugar after killing the yeast. I figured this would balance it out, but it's still very tart. I'm sure that everything was sterile, so I don't think that's the problem.

Any suggestions?

 

[Wade E]

Welcome wildridge! Do you have an acid tester?
Edited by: wadewade

 

[rshosted]

ditto, check the acid and PH. Then think about calcium carbonate and cold stabilizing. Possibly malolactic fermentation. Though, don't add sorbate at this time, until you test the acid.If you add it now you won't be able to do a ML fermentation.

 

[wildridge]

No, I don't have an acid test kit, but it is on my list of things to order. I've read about calcium carbonate, cold stablization, and malolactic fermentation. I didn't know if this was an acid problem or something else. I guess I'll find out when the acid test kit gets here. How can I make the wine taste a little more fruity like fresh muscadines? I want this to be something that can be enjoyed in the hot summer months.

 

[Waldo]

wildridge, muscadines are highly acidic . At what stage are you at on the Muscadine? If you are in the primary fermentation stage go ahead and add some calcium carbonate. What size batch are you making? I would start with 1 TSP. per gallon dissolved in some of your must and then stirred back in. Let it set at least a day and repeat if necessary until you get the tartness to a level you desire.

 

[Bill B]

Hi Wildridge, welcome to the forum. Can you give us some details. Like the recipe, starting SG. etc. this will help us narrow it down.
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[wildridge]

Thanks for all the help. I'm past secondary fermentation. I've added gelatin finings and sulphite and racked again after clearing. I used about 8 - 9 lbs of muscadines, 3 lbs of sugar, 4.5 qts of water, 1 tsp of yeast nutrient, 1/4 tsp of sulphite and 1 packet of Lalvin EC118 yeast. I let the must sit in the sulhpites for 24 hours before pitching the yeast. The starting specific gravity was 1.085. It fermented to bone dry. I took a sample and sweetend it a little to see if that would help wit the tartness, but it didn't. I have about 2 gallons of wine. I have not added potassium sorbate.

 

[Wade E]

Everything sounds great. Must be the acid.

 

[grapeman]

Check it with the acid test when you get it. If you didn't use any sorbate, watch out for renewed fermentation after adding more sugar. It may take a while to begin, but after it warms a little, you will get more bubbles. Waldo is the Muscadine expert here. I might even use the calcium carbonate trick now since you might want to wait a while before bottling to see if you get renewed fermentation.

 

[Bill B]

The recipe looks good. Im glad you didn't use any acid blend as Muscadines are acid enough. I would be careful using Calicum Carbonate. A little goes a long way. This would be the last thing I would try. I would try a few samples and add some sugar to each increasing the amount until the acidity was to your taste.This will aslo bring the flavors into balance. Alcohol level can also influence the tartness. You can't do much for this now, but in the future I would set a lower SG this will help in the fruit flavor and not mask it with a high ABV.
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[wildridge]

I appreciate all the help and I enjoy hearing from all of you. I'm going to take into consideration all that was said. I'm going to test the acid when I get a kit and I may try a malolactic fermentation. I'll let you know what the acid test kit says.

 

[wildridge]

Santa brought me a ph meter for Christmas, so I tested the Ph and it is 3.05

 

[rhsmith]

One batch of my muscadine wine tastes like vinegar. I made several batches, all the same ingredients and all the others taste great. What happened to make one batch that tastes like vinegar?

 

[sour_grapes]

Well, a fair guess would be that the one batch got infected by some acetic acid bacteria. What kind of sanitizing and sulfiting regimen did you follow?