# Need potassium bicarbonate help



## hobbyiswine (Oct 5, 2013)

I have a batch of 2013 wild red mustang grape wine in the carboy. Fermentation has finished and I have racked the wine once. Had quite a bit of wine diamonds at the first racking. The wine smells and tastes quite good but is high in acid. I purchased some potassium bicarbonate to add to the wine to aid in dropping the acid. Question is when do I add it? The wine is just sitting in glass now but I have not added any sorbate or clearing agents. I also want to oak the wine with cubes or chips. Do I stabilize, clear/fine the wine, oak age it and then add the potassium bicarbonate? Or should I add it first and then do all the clearing, oaking, etc. If anyone has any input I would love to hear it!


----------



## hobbyiswine (Oct 5, 2013)

Just had a thought...is it too late for MLF with this wine? Could that help this wines acid issues?


----------



## GreginND (Oct 5, 2013)

You don't mention what the pH is and that is crucial for your MLF. It may not be too late for MLF, but if you have high acid and have added sulfite, it may be difficult. I would try to lower the acid first.


----------



## Turock (Oct 6, 2013)

If you're trying to move the PH ALOT, then that could be a problem. Potassium carbonate is only for tweaking--not moving the PH many tenths because it can damage flavor. It needs a month or more to drop out too. 

Mustangs are so acidic--they usually need water dilution along with calcium carbonate pre-ferment to get the acids managed. It's very tough to manage this wine in the post ferment if the PH is very low. It would be good if you knew what the PH is on this wine. As Greg said---an MLF is unsuccessful on a low PH wine. The limit is 3.1 PH and there ARE some MLF cultures that will handle a PH as low as 3.1


----------



## hobbyiswine (Oct 6, 2013)

I have not tested the pH or the TA. I did add a lot of water and sugar pre-ferment but did not add calcium carbonate to lower the acid. I have not added any sorbate or stabilizers yet. Just a guess but I think the pH is likely around 3.0 and the TA around 1.0+. I plan to add potassium bicarbonate to reduce the acid around the maximum allowed on the label (0.3%) and cold stabilizing. Hopefully this would get the TA to about 0.7 and with oaking could make a drinkable dry red. If I absolutely need too I could sweeten a tad to knock off any acid bite left over but I have lots of sweet wine already. I was trying for a dry red. How would the potassium bicarbonate affect the taste? I have heard about it altering the taste but how? Does it give it an "off" flavor or reduce the fruity character of the taste?


----------



## Pumpkinman (Oct 6, 2013)

Not to sound too harsh, but how can you make any type of adjustment without having had tested your must? 
Blindly adding any additive is not how you want to start your wine.
I doubt that anyone will make recommendations without seeing some test results. You may be able to correct the acidity easily, but without knowing what your have, there is absolutely no way of knowing, making adjustments like this can only create more problems.

Sorry if I come across a bit strong.


----------



## LoveTheWine (Oct 6, 2013)

I agree with Tom. You MUST test both TA and PH before attempting any adjustments.
If you have gone through fermentation already it might be wise to stay away from calcium carbonate as this is the chemical of choice for PRE-ferment. 
There are other, better ways to lower acid before adding chemicals but without measurements you are in the dark:
MLF and cold stabilizing to drop out acid come to mind. 

If it is very tart you can at least test for PH to find out if it is around 3.1 as this is the minimum requirement for most low PH ML bacteria strains.
If it is close you could use Pot bicarbonate to hopefully bring it up a bit and then start MLF. After that I would put the carboys in a very cold environment for 1 or 2 months to drop out the rest of the acid as there will be more from adding the Pot bicarbonate.

All clearing agents would be added after this.
BTW there is no way of knowing PH by taste. I have a very high acid juice I'm starting but the PH is at 3.2


----------

