# Ph seams high in my mead



## Esparta (Apr 19, 2014)

I'm at the bottling stage and I am making a mead out of oranges and honey my ph is at 3.8 right now and it has a slight tart taste, just slight. This is my first mead it looks amazing and smells really good. I just added some bentonite to clear it up some more. I'm just wondering if I should add something to lower the acid a bit before I bottles it. 


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## GreginND (Apr 19, 2014)

IF it tastes good I probably would not mess with it. Mead tends to have a high pH and there are many successful meads (without any citrus) that folks have made without added acid. I would just make sure you have adequate SO2 to protect it.


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## seth8530 (Apr 19, 2014)

Yep, I would not mess with it too much. Perhaps do bench trials and figure out what taste best...


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## Esparta (Apr 19, 2014)

Thank you for y'all advise I will just leave it like it is for now. I find it can use a crisper taste though idk might just be me I'm really picky.I might put a little to the side when I'm bottling to mess with to see what else I can do for next time.

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## BernardSmith (Apr 19, 2014)

I guess my response would be what was the recipe? What was the variety of honey you used? What is your final gravity? My (limited) experience is that my meads have low pH (ie honey is quite acidic but the acidity is masked by the sweetness) but Schramm's The Compleat Meadmaker suggests that varieties of honey can have a range of pH from 3.4- 6.1 before you pitch the yeast and include any additives. Because honey appears to have few natural buffers" the pH can drop precipitously during fermentation and so some people add calcium carbonate... too much can raise the pH (like an antacid) to a level that makes the mead seem insipid.

Your reference to oranges suggests that you might have made a "JOAM". I've never tried that but I don't think that it is designed to be anything other than a very basic mead that uses somewhat questionable but workable ingredients and techniques (pith with the zest, bread yeast, no aeration, raisins to provide nutrient)...


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## Esparta (Apr 20, 2014)

My recipe is from this site
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/cuties-orange-mead-232514/
I followed it almost exactly except I used some really sweet oranges from my own tree and I didn't add any acid blend because I couldn't get any at the time. I used regulate honey from the store. Um my first reading was around 1.098 before I started the fermentation and my ph level was around 6 I was reading ph with (ph strips) I added calcium bicarbonate to lower it to around 5 I was tring for 4 though but I didn't want to add to much now my final reading was around 1.010 and acid was 3.6 it kinda has a slight vanilla taste to it


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## Esparta (Apr 20, 2014)

I hate wines with bread yeast I tried it in my first wine it was kinda nasty but after it sat in a bottle for a wile it got better don't remember how I did that one it was a big batch just like a half gallon to trie 


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## GreginND (Apr 20, 2014)

Esparta said:


> My recipe is from this site
> http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/cuties-orange-mead-232514/
> I followed it almost exactly except I used some really sweet oranges from my own tree and I didn't add any acid blend because I couldn't get any at the time. I used regulate honey from the store. Um my first reading was around 1.098 before I started the fermentation and my ph level was around 6 I was reading ph with (ph strips) I added calcium bicarbonate to lower it to around 5 I was tring for 4 though but I didn't want to add to much now my final reading was around 1.010 and acid was 3.6 it kinda has a slight vanilla taste to it
> 
> ...




I'm a little confused. You said you added calcium carbonate and the pH went down. Calcium carbonate would lower the acid which means your pH should rise. By the way, the pH strips are very inaccurate and I wouldn't trust the reading. 


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## BernardSmith (Apr 20, 2014)

I agree with Greg. pH is a measure of the strength of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance. A low number (below 7) pH signifies acidity and a high number above 7 and below 14 signifies alkalinity. The lower the number the stronger the acid, the higher the number the more alkaline the liquid is. In other words, a pH of 3 signifies MORE acidity than a pH of 5. You would expect the number to RISE when you add calcium carbonate because you are adding an alkaline or base to the mead. Calcium Carbonate neutralizes the acidity. It reduces the acidity, it does not increase it.


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## Esparta (Apr 20, 2014)

I need to invest in a ph reader my ph strips are off because I read the ph twice a few minutes ago and it had gave me different colors, a little off from each other though. So you guys think I should leave it like it is then and just watch the SO2 levels 


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## Esparta (Apr 20, 2014)

I had read some were that the higher the reading of ph the higher the acid. But I'm glad to know its the other way around. I'm still learning though this is my 3 wine I made so far and is my first mead I've made I have never made a kit though. Anyway ima order me a ph tester and some more testing equipment before I start my next batch


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## BernardSmith (Apr 20, 2014)

[FONT=&quot]Others on this forum may disagree with me but I am not entirely sure that you need a pH meter. Seems to me that taking a pH reading is useful for two reasons: if you suspect that the level of acidity is so high that the yeast will not be able to ferment the sugar then it is worthwhile measuring the pH to ensure that it is above about 3.5. The other reason for measuring the pH is if you are very particular about how much free SO2 you want to protect the wine (or mead) with. Wines with a higher pH (less acidity) are more susceptible to bacterial spoilage (all other things being equal) and are more likely to oxidize, so the higher the pH the more SO2 you need to use. 
Now neither of these two reasons have anything to do with how your wine tastes. If you think the wine tastes too acidic then you may want to balance that acidity with more sweetness - by adding more honey or sugar after the wine has been stabilized. If you think the mead tastes rather bland then you may want to add acid blend to give it more of an edge or indeed, you may want to carbonate the mead.. But a pH meter won't provide you with any useful information about how the mead in fact tastes - only your taste-buds can do that, although a pH meter can help you make your meads and wines with more consistency so that each time you make the same mead or wine you get the results that you want... 
Actually, you can use a pH meter to measure TA as well as pH and the meter then allows you to use a specific reading (easy to read) than to look for a color change - much harder to determine, much more subjective and prone to observer error... 
[/FONT]


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## Esparta (Apr 21, 2014)

Thank you for your reply bennard I thought the acid would change the taste a good bit I'm glad it doesn't. I am get a ph meter any way because I plan on getting more into making more types of wine and I want to be much more precise now on on about how much acid I have in my wine when I start I don't want to end up with vinegar. My ph strips are kinda hard to read for me and they only change to four different colors anything In between I have to guess. I'm thinking on adding a little honey to it but i will do a small bit at a time till I get what I want then do the same for the whole batch so that it is equal. Agin thank you all for y'all reply they help me a lot I'm still new to making wine but so far it's a nice hobby.


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