[Dave Burt]

200 lbs. I sulphited at 75 ppm at the crush as others had noted a VA smell. However, at home I did not detect any VA and so cold soaked for 2 days. After 2 days there was some wild yeast activity so I brought inside to start fermentation.

My numbers on settled clear juice were:
Brix 22.2, pH 3.89, TA 5.4

Normally I would have added 1 g/L of tartaric acid to bring the TA up to 6.4 mg/L however I added my 200 lbs. of must to my Merlot that was already fermenting. Co-fermentation ratio was 1.4:1 (CS:Merlot) and combined chemistry was Brix 24.2, pH 3.75, TA 5.6. Added 0.7 g/L of tartaric acid to bring the TA up to 6.3.

Jeff said that the two commercial wineries using his Cab Sauv have found variable results in Brix. You can use the following formula to calculate your alcohol level in the finished wine:

(Starting SG – Ending SG) x 131 = % alcohol
So, if your ending SG is 0.994, your alcohol level in the finished wine will be as follows:
Starting Brix 24 (SG 1.101) – 14% alcohol
Starting Brix 23 (SG 1.096) – 13.4% alcohol
Starting Brix 22.2 (SG 1.093) – 13% alcohol

[Dave Burt]

Combined juice samples from my 3 pails into one container, settled overnight to obtain clear juice, and tested on the clear juice.
Brix 27.2
pH 3.98
TA 3.8
Will add tartaric acid to bring the TA up to 6.0. I’m in the same situation as Kathy. Waiting for the Cab Sauv to come in and will co-ferment and make final Brix adjustments at that time. The Cab Sauv is anticipated to arrive at the Cavallotti on Saturday Oct. 7.

[Dave Burt]

My chemistry numbers include:
Brix 23
pH 3.77
TA 4.8

Added 2 g/L tartaric dissolved in 500 ml warm water. Adjusted chemistry:
Brix 22.8
pH 3.45
TA 6.9

From everyone’s results so far it appears that the level of ripeness was quite variable. If you received more yellowish grapes your Brix and pH will be higher and TA lower; if they were more greenish, the opposite. At the crush I only tested 2 grapes and obviously they were not representative. A Brix of 22 to 23 is ideal for this white – you will not need to add any water.

To calculate your alcohol:
In my case, 23 Brix = 1.096 SG
(Starting SG – Ending SG) x 131 = % alcohol
(1.096 – 0.992) x 131 = 13.6% alcohol
For 22 Brix:
(1.092 – 0.992) x 131 = 13.1% alcohol
Of course, if your ending SG is higher than 0.992 you will end up with less alcohol

-Dave

[Dave Burt]

Ron, are you going to bring your Brix down a bit? 25 seems a bit high.

[Dave Burt]

Brix 28.5
pH 3.82
I was unable to clear my sample so did not test for TA. I assumed a TA of 5 based on what other got. I added acidified water to bring the Brix down to 24 and the TA up to 6.3. I started the ferment after a 5-day cold soak.

I thought I detected a slight smell of smoke on the must. Did anyone else find this?

[Dave Burt]

I did chemistry and YAN on samples from Neels and Kathy.
Kathy:
Brix 23.4 (refractometer), pH 3.88, TA 3.0, YAN 70

Neels:
Brix 22.5, pH 3.84, TA 3.4, YAN 70

[Dave Burt]

I let it sit on the skins for 48 hours before pressing – lots of colour. After pressing I settled the must for another 48 hours before racking off the clear upper layer. The sludge was put in the fridge for later extraction of juice. Will use this to increase the overall Brix of the fermentation. My numbers on the clear juice:
Brix 19.2
pH 3.61
TA 6.2 g/L
YAN 50 mg N/L
Will be adjusting similar to Don, probably target a TA of 7.2

[Dave Burt]

My numbers are based on a sample taken after about 6 hrs cold soak.
Brix 21.8
pH 3.7
TA 5.8 g/L
YAN 70 mg N/L
There was very little colour in the juice so it will be interesting to see if these numbers change when I test at the end of cold soak..

[Dave Burt]

Brix 25.0
pH 3.53
TA 5.9
YAN 42 mg N/L
Will likely add a little acid to bring TA into the low 6’s.
As Don mentioned, very low YAN

[Dave Burt]

It took awhile to get enough clear juice for testing. Here is what I got:
Brix 22.4
pH 3.76
TA 4.6
YAN 168
Average YAN from Don, Ian, and myself is 157 mg N/L

I will be adding sugar to bring the Brix up to 23.5, and acid to bring the TA up to 6.0. If I assume 58 L of juice for my 200 lbs, Willem Wyngaard’s spreadsheet indicates I will need to add 2.1 lbs of sugar to achieve a Brix of 23.5 and 81.2 g of tartaric to achieve a TA of 6.0

[Dave Burt]

The sample in my fridge does not yet have enough volume of clear juice at the top for doing a TA and YAN. I did put a few drops on my refractometer and got a Brix of 22.8

Should be enough clear juice for a full test by tomorrow evening.

[Dave Burt]

I have changed my original post because I realized I had been using a sample of 11 ml instead of 10 ml. Here are my revised numbers. I did 2 tests, one on juice drawn off after the crush, and the other after 4 days cold soak. Both samples were settled in the fridge for 2 or more days in order to achieve clear juice on the top layer. Note that if there are organic particulates in your sample it will buffer the sodium hydroxide and you will end up with an erroneously high TA.

Crush Sample:
Brix: 22.6
pH: 3.86
TA 5.2
YAN: 229

After 4 days cold soak:
Brix: 22.4
pH: 3.9
TA: 5.2
YAN: 229

Regarding the YAN, I would trust Ian’s and Don’s YAN over this one as I applied a correction of 10/11 instead of doing the test over (getting low on reagents).

[Dave Burt]

Robin, Ian is the only one who got a sample of the Syrah for a YAN test. You can go to the 2016 grape forums and find the YAN from previous years. For the Syrah it was 229. However, last year the lab gave us some relatively high YAN’s and we subsequently had some H2S issues. This led us to suspect some of the lab YAN’s were biased high. I am not working with the 2017 Syrah, but I would default to a YAN of 100 in the absence of measured values.

[Dave Burt]

Looking at the numbers above, I am seeing a disconnect between the pH and TA. A low TA (low acid) usually results in a high pH (>3.7). This is particularly so in the numbers reported by Ian and myself. For the most part, pH seems to be in the range 3.6 to 3.7. This is actually pretty good for a grape with a Brix of 25-27. For a grape with a pH of 3.6-37 I would expect a TA in the 4’s or 5’s, not in the 3’s. This makes me suspect some of the low TA’s reported.

I would recommend that people err on the side of caution when adding their acidified water. Try half of it, stir the must well, and check your pH again. If you get a pH of less than 3.5, you are heading into the realm of whites and you might want to stop your acid addition their (in other words, your initial TA reading is suspect).

[Dave Burt]

Here are my chemistry numbers for the 2017 Merlot. The sample was drawn off a pail at the crush.
Brix 25.4
pH 3.65
TA 3.6
YAN 112

We will be adding water to bring the Brix down to 24, and acid to raise the TA to 6.2. As with the Pinot Noir, the TA reading seems low so I will be curious to see what others get.