TA adjustments

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mendozer

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I just measured my wine numbers to compare to must. Here's what I got.
must measured 9/18, wine today 10/4
Pinot
Must: pH 3.65, TA 6.1 g/L
Wine: pH 3.61, TA 7.0 g/L

Blend
Must: pH 3.32, TA 8.8 g/L
Wine: pH 4.06, TA 6.8 g/L

What the hell? Pinot's TA went up and the blend's pH went up. Those seem backwards. In Pambianchi's book the TA range for must is 6-8 which is why I didn't mess with acid additions at yeast pitching. But wine ranges 4-5.5 g/L. my pH is a little high for both.

Not quite sure what to do here.
 
I just measured my wine numbers to compare to must. Here's what I got.
must measured 9/18, wine today 10/4
Pinot
Must: pH 3.65, TA 6.1 g/L
Wine: pH 3.61, TA 7.0 g/L

Blend
Must: pH 3.32, TA 8.8 g/L
Wine: pH 4.06, TA 6.8 g/L

What the hell? Pinot's TA went up and the blend's pH went up. Those seem backwards. In Pambianchi's book the TA range for must is 6-8 which is why I didn't mess with acid additions at yeast pitching. But wine ranges 4-5.5 g/L. my pH is a little high for both.

Not quite sure what to do here.

Your TA's look pretty good. Make sure your meter is properly calibrated and that your wine is free of CO2, and check your pH's on the CO2 free wine. Typically a 5 ml sample in a test tube can be shaken to degas pretty quickly. Make sure your pH readings are correct before you take any actions.
 
the wine is still going thru all kinds of activity. degassing clearing etc. any numbers now are not indicative of what the end result will be three months from now. wait until wine clears and stabilizes before making any kind of measurements that have any meaning. patience.
 
,eter is calibrated to 4 and 7 before any testing occurs. I do TA measurements with the pH method (8.2) I guess Ive never gone this far into acids. Usually it's spot on or I add a bit just as I pitch. I've never needed to adjust down the road. So you all adjust after clearing?
 
If you're not doing mlf, you can adjust at any time, after fermentation, after clearing, after bulk aging, but higher pH's require more SO2 for protection than lower pH's, so sulfite accordingly. As salcoco said, lots of changes are occurring, and waiting a bit longer will also allow you to taste what you are doing as you make incremental adjustments.

If you are doing mlf, and have a very low pH (which you don't if the 3.61 and 4.06 are correct), adjusting upward before pitching mlb would be my preferred timing. With a higher pH, mlf is easier, but too high risks other bacterial activity. If the two wines were mine, and I intended to do mlf, I wouldn't adjust the Pinot at all right now, but would adjust the blend down from 4.05, closer to the 3.65 range before pitching mlb. Just my two cents.
 
ok I'll adjust some acid to lower pH this weekend for the blend just before I do the MLB
 

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