Acid Level Explanation please?

[JoshDivino]

I've been reading a lot about wine making on this site and have made quite a few batches of home made wine and I have decided that the next step I need to learn is the acid levels. What is the best way to test this? PH strips? What is the Ideal PH of wine? How do you calculate how much acid/acid reducer to add?

 

[JohnT]

OK, PH.

Personally, I do not like PH test strips. They are fairly inaccurate.

The best way to test PH would be to use a PH meter. The PH meter measures the content of acid in your wine and also takes into account the combined strength of the acids in your sample. This is the best way, and is also expensive ($80 and up).

If you do not want to lay out that amount of cash for a PH meter, then I would go for a TA kit. This tests the all over weight of the acid in your sample. It is not as accurate as a PH meter, but comes very close. It is also a much less expensive option. TA Kit run about $7 or $8 and can be found in most LBWS shops and also all over the internet. Additionally, they are rather simple to use.

 

[JoshDivino]

Great, I found a 60 dollar ph meter that seems to be legit, what is the target ph of wine? It says it is dependent on the components in the wine, fruit, sugar... Etc, how do I find the target ph?

 

[JohnT]

Wines do vary on PH. A lot depends on the fruit itself and also what fruit is used.

Typical for a california premium wine is around 3.4.

For a simple table wine, the PH can be anywhere from 3.3 and 3.7.

 

[Turock]

A VERY comprehensive guide to PH levels is given in the winemaking book From Vines to Wines. Whites should be 3.2 and reds 3.4

Now, this is very subjective and is dependant on the fruit you use and your own perception of the acid levels you like. It will give you a place to start, however.

A PH of 3.4 on red grapes gets easily thrown out of the window when working with many of the high brix Calif varieties. Many of them have target PH's of 3.5 to 3.8 MLF's are also used to reduce acid.

Knowing your PH is also valuable for being sure you have enough SO2 in your wines. A wine with a PH of 3.2 only needs about 30 PPM of free SO2----a PH of 3.4 needs 40 PPM----a PH of 3.6 needs about 60PPM---a PH of 3.8 needs 80 PPM

The proper acid content takes a wine that tastes like dishwater to it having a bright, and more flavorful component to it. We demonstrated this to ourselves when toying with Niagara juice pre-ferment. Once we got it to a PH of 3.2, the flavor just exploded on it. The very first, unaltered sample, was quite flat, not very fruity, and totally uninteresting. Proper acid levels for the wine you're making can give a "wow" factor to your wines that might be missing if you are currently ignoring PH.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

Thanks for that reply T. I've gotta take my wine making to the next level also!

 

[magpiemini]

Read the book by Lum Eisenman. Just google his name, it's a free PDF file. He talks a lot about it.

Other sources
www.wineperspective.com
winemaking.jackkeller.net/acid.asp <- this one has a chart for different types of wine.

 

[BobF]

I'll be GD'd if *I* can find it, but there is a really good TA/pH document in a sticky *somewhere* in the WMT fora. I think it originated as a presentation given at one of Tom's club meetings.

We briefly had a topical reference area, but that was apparently too easy to use.

 

[whackfol]

There are some great readings on pH and TA at moundtop.com