[Dave Burt]

Hi Sandy,
Your TA seems excessively high for these grapes. I have got these levels of TA in the past when attempting to do a TA on unsettled juice. The suspended organics seem to gobble up your NaOH solution resulting in an excessively high reading. Brix and pH are less affected, but for TA it is essential that you draw off a sample, let it settle in the fridge overnight, draw off the clear portion that sits on the top, then do your TA on that portion AT ROOM TEMPERATURE.

Of course it is also important to have a calibrated pH meter and fresh NaOH solution (NaOH takes on oxygen over time).
-Dave

[Dave Burt]

I pressed my Pinot Gris off at home after a 24 hr cold soak. Chemistry on the clear press-run fraction gave the following:
Brix 24.6 (SG 1.104), pH 3.56, TA 6.7

I gave the juice 48 hrs to settle then racked off the clear stuff on top and put the sludge in the freezer for putting through Duane’s cryo-extraction later on. Chemistry on the clear free and press-run combined gave:

Brix 24.2 (SG 1.102), pH 3.68, TA 6.7

I added 0.6 g/L of tartaric acid dissolved in 1.2 L of acidified water for 30 L of juice. Brix came down to 23.5 and pH 3.44. Did not get to measuring the TA however it is predicted to increase 7.3 mg/L. Fermenting with D47 yeast.

I had some H2S in the morning after pitching the yeast but this cleared up within a couple of hrs after adding the first nutrient feeding. I also added half a capsule of vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) as per Peter’s recommendation at our last meeting.

[Dave Burt]

Hi All,
As most of you know Ian Baker manages Sea Star Winery on Pender Island. Ian sent me their numbers on Dan Danis’s Merlot picked the day before ours. They processed their Merlot on Saturday during the pouring rain which may have reduced the Brix. Their numbers were as follows:
Brix 25.2
PH 3.69
TA 5.2
Ian’s plan for the winery was to add 1 g/L of tartaric and acidified water to bring the Brix the TA up top 6.2 and the Brix down to 24.5

[Dave Burt]

Hi Ron, YAN results are in the first post. The same for other varietals that were tested.
-Dave

[Dave Burt]

My readings were: Brix 24 (refractometer), pH 3.91, TA 5.8. I added 0.6 g/L of tartaric acid which should bring the TA up to 6.4 and reduce the pH.

I had to cut short the cold soak as the must started to ferment on Saturday. Inoculated with RC212 yeast rehydrated in Go Ferm.

Note: This morning (Sunday) there was a strong smell of the dreaded nail polish (ethyl acetate). I am following James Waring’s protocol for treating this – added 100 ppm SO2 to the must and aerated well to blow off the smells. Will treat with more if needed – goal is to kill of the acetobacter which has a lower tolerance to SO2 than our yeasts.

Is anyone else experiencing nail polish smells???????
-Dave

Update: Monday morning there was still a bit of nail polish smell so I hit it with another 100 ppm of SO2. This seemed to clear things up as a few hours later the ferment was showing lots of vigour and it was smelling sweet as it should. However, in the evening I noticed a slight H2S smell, so doubled up on the DAP addition, with another dose this morning (Tuesday).

Moral of this story: good dose of SO2 in the pails at crush (50 ppm), forget about an extended cold soak, nutrient regime seems to need more than indicated in Willem’s spreadsheet.

[Dave Burt]

I am assuming you mean 225 YAN for the CY3079 batch. Last year I added 262 YAN for 200 lbs of grapes (D254 yeast) and had no problems.

[Dave Burt]

Your pH seems high, which would then affect your TA. Check the calibration of your meter using buffers pH 4.01 and 7.01. Make sure buffers are not past expiration date. Of the two, pH 4.01 is the least stable.

[Dave Burt]

My chemistry results on clear juice from 100 lbs of Riesling:
Brix 19.4
pH 3.27
TA 6.5
Started the ferment last night with D47 yeast. Did not add any acid. If I need to adjust acid I will do it after fermentation (added acid last year and it turned out a bit sharp for my liking).

[Dave Burt]

I got a Brix of 22.3 and pH 3.73. No TA as my NaOH solution needed to be calibrated. I added 2 g/L of tartaric acid. pH came down to 3.46 after this addition. Taste was good (not too acidic). My yield was 20 L of clear juice and 10 L of sludge. Sludge is in the freezer for subsequent Lukyn extraction method. Expect to recover at least 7 L as this thaws.

[Dave Burt]

I pulled my Pinot Gris out of cold storage Nov.12 (juice from 100 lbs) , added Cinn Free once mostly thawed (0.014 ml/L), racked off the clear juice and chemistry testing on Nov. 16. Added 1 g/L tartaric and just under 1 L of acidified water to lower Brix and increase acid. Results:
Pre-adjustment: 24.0 Brix, 3.35 pH, 4.5 TA
Post-adjustment: 22.7 Brix, 3.19 pH, 5.5 TA

Comments: TA seems low for the measured pH values; since acid can mysteriously disappear on frozen musts and then reappear again at the end of fermentation, leaving the balancing as is for now.

[Dave Burt]

Hi Albert,
See “Syrah – Chemistry and Balancing” topic for what others got for pH and TA for the Syrah. This might help in the absence of a pH meter.

[Dave Burt]

Hi Julian,
Your initial pH is comparable to what others got so I would trust it. You received 100 lbs of Syrah, so your juice volume in the must was probably about 28 L. Thus, your addition of 20 g of tartaric works out to less than 1 g/L (0.71 g/L by my estimate), which is a conservative addition. I suspect your pH reading of 2.89 is due to CO2 in the wine.

I would suggest you taste the wine and use your taste buds to assess the acid balance in the wine. You may not get an accurate pH reading until ML is done and the wine is still. For now your taste buds may be your best tool.

[Dave Burt]

Hi Julian,
You would have had to add a lot of acid to get a pH of 2.9 – how much did you add? If there is trapped CO2 in your wine it will skew your pH reading downward.

To encourage ML: add some leucofood or opti-malo nutrient, warm the wine up to around 22 C (72 F), stir every few days. A thin layer of dead yeast cells on the bottom also helps. Re-inoculate if necessary.

Also, I have had ML’s where it was difficult to see if anything was happening, yet chromatography testing after a couple of months indicated completion.

[Dave Burt]

Hi Franco,
I suspect your TA is high for a pH that high. I have noticed that if the sample has sediment in it that this affects the TA measurement (skews it high).
-Dave

[Dave Burt]

I have just 50 lbs of the Dan Danis Cab Franc. My numbers are Brix 28.2, pH 4.07, too much sediment in sample for a reliable TA – put some in the fridge to settle for a later test.

Added water to bring Brix down to 25.2 and acid at 1.5 g/L which brought pH down to 3.77. Will provide a TA from the fridge sample later

Update:
Redid chemistry using clear juice from the sample kept in fridge for 2 days. Results:
Brix 28.0, pH 3.94, TA 4.9
An acid addition of 1.5 g/L seems appropriate, perhaps more to bring pH down to 3.7 (3.7 is the upper limit recommended by “Wine Wizard” Alison Crowe in Winemaker Magazine)