Acid level fruit wines

[Sammyk]

We make mostly fruit wines. How do I know what acid level is acceptable for which fruit wine? I just bought a pH meter.........

If acid is so important, I am wondering why recipes do not have a suggested pH?

 

[REDBOATNY]

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f65/acid-ph-so2-power-point-4915/

This is the referemce I learned from. Thanks Tom!

 

[Turock]

I agree with you on the recipe comment. But they have you adding so much water, that THAT becomes your PH control. If you want to make big flavor fruit wines, the way forward is to use NO water---or reduce it down to a couple PINTS of water.

We make a LOT of fruit wine. We take a PH reading on everything and adjust at the primary. As I'm sitting here thinking about all the different fruits we make wine from, I think all of it comes down to a PH of around 3.3 or so. The only wine we make with a little more acid on it is Niagara grape wine. That one is best around 3.2 So if you shoot for 3.3-3.4 that will be just about perfect for whatever you're making wine from.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I generally like to get my fruit wines at a .60 TA reading. Which is about 3.3 ph.

 

[Julie]

+ Jon, that is what I normally do but I do push my elderberry up to .80%

 

[mmadmikes1]

I am a little different, I go for 3.5

 

[Midwest Vintner]

I am a little different, I go for 3.5

That is closer to my average as well. I will say though, it depends on what you want to do with the wine too. If you are making a wine to age for 3-5 years, such as a blueberry or elderberry (or maybe even longer), then you want more acidity to protect it. It will mellow over time. If you want a quick drinking wine, such as 3-6 months or so, then 3.5-3.6 is probably best. I do not advocate going too much over the 3.6 (a 3.8 max) on acidity because you are taking away both flavor and protection. Essentially, the lower the pH number (3.0-3.3), the more protection and bite/zip/zesty flavor and the higher pH number (3.5-3.8), the more mellow and less protection. From most of the information I've read, 3.4-3.6 is the usual target and pretty much the 3.45-3.55 is the average. Now most white wines have more acidity (3.1-3.3) and there are different styles of wine, period. So there is not a REAL answer, but a common ball park, so to speak. Just try to have enough acid there for protection or you'll need to use more k-meta or have higher abv to keep it from spoilage.

I have seen concord juice under 3.0 and blueberry under 3.1, so sometimes that means you'll need to dilute it some or add some calcium carbonate.