Tartaric Acid Mistake

balassley · Apr 29, 2016

Picked up 108 pounds of Chilean Syria today (my 1st crush) and have already screwed up. Using my SC-300, Ph was showing 3.55 and .55 TA. The MoreWine guide notes you should be at least .6 TA prior to starting fermentation. Well I way overshot adding Tartaric Acid and am now showing 3.15 Ph and .88 TA. Will normal fermentation and MLF correct this, or should I attempt to correct this now? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Full disclosure: I added SO2 when I got the grapes home. Ran my tests. Overshot adding Tartaric Acid. Added Lallzyme EX 1 hour ago. Holding 24 hours till I start primary fermentation. Afterwards planning MLF.

Boatboy24 · Apr 29, 2016

At this point, I'd hold steady and hope that MLF will bring those numbers in line. If not, you can look at cold stabilization or/and potassium carbonate. You may get lucky and some of that acid may just drop out.

Julie · Apr 29, 2016

+what Boatboy says. And I really don't worry about TA prior to fermentation. I make sure ph is where it needs to be and I will adjust acid post fermentation.

Johnd · Apr 29, 2016

I agree also. I recall recently looking at some numbers @ceeaton posted, he had substantial reduction from pre fermentation to post MLF.

I'm a betting man, and I bet it'll come out OK, and if not, we'll figure it out.

ibglowin · Apr 29, 2016

Whats the Brix right now? If it's high you could water it back with straight water and raise the pH. Your going to have a he!! of a time trying to get MLF to start below 3.2 and if your pH drops which it does most of the time with AF your going to be even lower to 3.0 when all is said and done making it even harder. Good luck.

balassley · Apr 29, 2016

23 Brix right now

ibglowin · Apr 29, 2016

Cant add any water to that. You may want to think about deacidification

NorCal · Apr 29, 2016

Can you get another 100 lbs of grapes?

balassley · Apr 30, 2016

Well I was up till 1am panicking. My wife said, "life must be rough when all you're worried about is a bunch of grapes". Funny.

So I recalibrated and retested using my SC-300 twice and pH is now showing 3.05. I can't even explain.

I decided against picking up new grapes. It's a 4 hour round trip drive and another $200 - a very costly mistake. My next trip won't be till they get California grapes in. I was considering boatboy's advice, but I think he'd feel differently upon learning pH is showing 3.05, and as ibglowin points out, I'm in trouble when it comes to MLF.

ibglowin did give me an idea though. I have 12ish gallons of must at 23 brix. What if I dilute with a water/sugar mix (maintain 23 brix) to pH 3.2, which is where my VP41 MLB pack says it need to be at or above? Thoughts?

Thanks to everyone who replied. Much appreciated. Lesson learned here.

Treeman · Apr 30, 2016

I wouldn't add water because your brix is fine. As ibglowin suggested you want to add potassium carbonate to raise the pH. I would suggest removing a gallon of your must and then adding small amounts of K2CO3 until pH is ~3.4. If you don't have a scale to weigh it out then add 1/4 tsp at a time. Once you figure out the right amount for your 1gal, then plan to add 10times that amount to the whole batch. Split this amount into 3 equal portions and check the pH after adding each portion.

Next time you do a tartaric acid addition you want to follow this same approach and always add in small additions checking the pH after each.

ibglowin · Apr 30, 2016

I agree. You have a little room to add some water but not enough to make much of a dent in the numbers.

sdelli · Apr 30, 2016

Never had this problem but my guess would be to go ahead with fermentation and then work on getting the acid down after....
Or
Add water.... Then add sugar

ibglowin · Apr 30, 2016

No, thats a bad idea. The pH is way too low now for yeast survive and thrive. At that pH you would have to keep the fermentation temps down below 70F or you will kill the yeast.

balassley · Apr 30, 2016

Added potassium carbonate, pH now at 3.38 woo hoo

ibglowin · Apr 30, 2016

I would shoot for 3.5-3.6. Go sloooooooow..........

Tartaric Acid Mistake

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