Thoughts on adding tannins, oak, or tartaric acid in kits.

[purpletongue]

I'm wondering what the thoughts are with adding tannins, oak and tartaric acid to kits. Would you recommend doing a specific varietal of kit vanilla first and then experimenting with adding these? So you have a baseline? Any recommendations for testing for acid / ph? I find my ph strips are super inaccurate because they don't have much fidelity. The color for ph of 3 and the next gradation/color is ph 4. Not super helpful.

 

[cmason1957]

Assuming you make the kits to the proper amount, the ph and the ta will be just about perfect, no need to even bother testing them. Unless your want to for practice, but the strips aren't worth the money. I do often increase the tannin, since I find it lower than I like. How much, um some experience drives it and taste pre ferment. Oak, I sometimes add some, again taste tells me.

 

[purpletongue]

Assuming you make the kits to the proper amount, the ph and the ta will be just about perfect, no need to even bother tasting them. Unless your want to food practice, but the strips aren't worth the money. I do often increase the tannin, since I find it lower than I like. How much, um some experience drives it and taste pre ferment. Oak, I sometimes add some, again taste tells me.

Thanks for the comment. I think I will do this next kit without adding anything so I have a baseline to compare it to. If anything I might add some oak chips.