Welch Concord / acid question

[jeffhigdon]

I mixed up a recipe pieced together from several I found. The PH test is 4.5 and the Acuvin acid test is 9. I did both tests twice. Isn't the acid way too high? I'm afraid to adjust anything without some advice. Here's what I did, any help would be appreciated:

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15 11.5 oz. cans <st1ity><st1lace>Concord</st1lace></st1ity>
frozen concentrate

2 64 ounces welches concord black cherry

5 cups sugar

1 tsp tannin

0 tsp Acid Blend

water to 5.5 gal.

3 tsp yeast energizer

3 tsp Pectic Enzyme

5 tsp Yeast Nutrient

Lavlin 1122

 

[Wade E]

Sounds like a lot of juice and little water to me, what was the actual amount of water?

 

[jeffhigdon]

About 3.5 gal.

 

[Wade E]

Well Im not up using PH tests my self only cause I dont have a tester and dont really trust any paper litmus tests as they always seem to be wrong or unreadable with a red wine so until I get a digital 1 Im at a loss to help myself or others. All I can say at this point is to ferment it out and if acid is still high then use calcium carbonate to reduce it.

 

[jeffhigdon]

Thanks wade. I was thinking about adding water to 6 gal. and sugar to keep the sg at 1.090. Wasn't sure if 1/2 gal would be enough to make a difference. I'll follow your advise.

 

[dfwwino]

I would see if it will ferment and wait until fermentation is done before I made any adjustments. After fermentation, test the acid again. Also, taste the wine and see if it is too tart. If it remains high, rather than dilute, you could try adding potassium bicarbonate to reduce the acidity.

 

[grapeman]

Do you have a pH meter and aren't using litmus paper? If so check the calibration on your meter. Hard to believe the pH would be 4.5. That is almost a full point higher than I would expect for it. The TA is also a bit higher than expected, but really not that high for Concord. Let it ferment out and retest if you want or let your tongue be the test meter for you.

 

[jeffhigdon]

I do have the ph meter that George sells. It registers the 7.01 solution right at 7.01. I checked it several times. I know it's not a one for one, but the TA and the acid test seemed out of sync. that's why I asked the question. If the readings are right,I guess that means I have a lot of acid (acid test) but not very strong acid (PHhigh). This topic was just discussed on another post. I guess my next question is what do we "taste" when it comes to acid? My thought is your tongue would taste "acid" if the PH was too low.


I'll follow everyone's advice and wait to see what happens. Thank you all once again.

 

[Aaronh]

From the couple wild fruit batches I made My ph was ussaly in the 3-4 area and only had a problem with my crabapple batch. I also made a dandelion lilac raisen wine before I got my electronic pH tester and when I finnaly tested it.... it was 2.39

.One of my friends who doesnt brew wine but has some chemistry background said "jesus that has a PH of 2.39?!?" Im not tring that one!".I make shure folks who try it dont have a history ofheart burn spells.

I didnt have a Elctronic PH tester for the welches with tannins eather... I opened a bottle of store bought Merlot and added titric acid and compaired the Ph papers till the colors matched.
<DIV id=ms__id42>
<DIV id=ms__id43>
<DIV id=ms__id39>Ending PH's
<DIV id=ms__id45>
<DIV id=ms__id38>Welches with tannins.... PH3.46 Yeast - EC-1118 (acid added)
<DIV id=ms__id33>Raspberry...PH 3.20 Yeast RC-212 (no acid added)
<DIV id=ms__id34>Lilac...PH 3.34 Yeast EC-1118 (lemons added)
<DIV id=ms__id35>DLR ...PH 2.39 Yeast EC-1118 (acid added)
<DIV id=ms__id36>Choke cherry ... PH 3.42 Yeast RC-212 (no acid added)
<DIV id=ms__id37>Crab apple ...PH 3.15 Yeast EC-1118 and Super start distillers yeast. (no acid added)
<DIV id=ms__id46>
<DIV id=ms__id47>I need to break down and buy a TA testing kit one of these daysEdited by: Aaronh