Acid blend
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Stressbaby
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Hi Benaway,
I'm no expert, all I can offer is my own take...
I think there are a couple of issues here. First, when is the best time to add acid? I adjust preferment, but if anything I'll slightly undershoot at this point, then make postferment adjustments based on taste. By the way, recipes are very rough guides on this; I never blindly add the recommended amount of acid, but rather add according to pH, TA, or both, depending on the wine I'm making.
The second issue is which type of acid to add. There are different types of acid blend and they vary widely in their makeup. For example, I have traditionally used malic/tartaric/citric in 50/10/40 ratio, but they make 40/40/20, and here is one with 25/25/50. I usually make non-grape wines, and I have found that most of these wines do not benefit from malic acid (apple being the exception of course). So I no longer generally use acid blend...what I now do is use tartaric and/or citric, depending on the wine. Some are mostly tartaric, some are mostly citric.
Robert
I'm no expert, all I can offer is my own take...
I think there are a couple of issues here. First, when is the best time to add acid? I adjust preferment, but if anything I'll slightly undershoot at this point, then make postferment adjustments based on taste. By the way, recipes are very rough guides on this; I never blindly add the recommended amount of acid, but rather add according to pH, TA, or both, depending on the wine I'm making.
The second issue is which type of acid to add. There are different types of acid blend and they vary widely in their makeup. For example, I have traditionally used malic/tartaric/citric in 50/10/40 ratio, but they make 40/40/20, and here is one with 25/25/50. I usually make non-grape wines, and I have found that most of these wines do not benefit from malic acid (apple being the exception of course). So I no longer generally use acid blend...what I now do is use tartaric and/or citric, depending on the wine. Some are mostly tartaric, some are mostly citric.
Robert
montanaWineGuy
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Some before, but after fermentation is complete, add to suit your taste.
The choice of acid additions and which acids to add can be a little complicated. It really depends on the wine you are making and the style you are making it in.
If you are talking about grape wines, I would recommend you never add acid blend. Use pure tartaric acid. Especially if you will be doing MLF on the wine. You do not want citric acid present when you do MLF as it produces lots of diacetyl (butter flavors) and can produce acetic acid.
I would use it strictly for fruit wines.
The other issue is whether or not you need acid. Robert was right on point with knowing the pH and TA to decide if you even need more acid.
If you are talking about grape wines, I would recommend you never add acid blend. Use pure tartaric acid. Especially if you will be doing MLF on the wine. You do not want citric acid present when you do MLF as it produces lots of diacetyl (butter flavors) and can produce acetic acid.
I would use it strictly for fruit wines.
The other issue is whether or not you need acid. Robert was right on point with knowing the pH and TA to decide if you even need more acid.
Buy yourself a PH meter so that you have more accurate testing. They are pretty reasonable these days. We use acid blend on fruit wines and even use it on Niagara grapes because they are more like fruits than they are wine grapes. We prefer to acid adjust pre-ferment as the result is better, and then you don't have to mess around trying to adjust in the post-ferment.
