boring newbie worries

[Stressbaby]

@Stressbaby, I read your blog on the blueberries, and was wondering what made your pH drop?

My guess is that more juice/acid got released from the berries.

 

[Scooter68]

@Stressbaby, I read your blog on the blueberries, and was wondering what made your pH drop?

As she mentioned the thawing and breaking down of the blueberries will release not just sugar but other things like flavor and acid. I had an all blueberry 1 gallon batch this year (8lbs / gallon) that came up with a pH in the 2.6 range. Blueberries can be very acidic. (And thats really no wonder since they require a soil pH of 4.5 - 5.5 to grow.)

When I've been making my wines with crushed or whole fruit, my concern is the amount of sugars and acids released as the fruit breaks down. So I'm going to slow roll my fermentation starts on those wine batches probably waiting 48 hours after adding K-Meta before taking final SG and Acid readings. THEN I'll adjust and pitch the yeast. When using just juice, pressed or concentrate, this isn't a concern since the without the pulp there is much less chance of an change in SG or pH until the fermentation starts.

 

[Tnuscan]

As she mentioned the thawing and breaking down of the blueberries will release not just sugar but other things like flavor and acid. I had an all blueberry 1 gallon batch this year (8lbs / gallon) that came up with a pH in the 2.6 range. Blueberries can be very acidic. (And thats really no wonder since they require a soil pH of 4.5 - 5.5 to grow.)

When I've been making my wines with crushed or whole fruit, my concern is the amount of sugars and acids released as the fruit breaks down. So I'm going to slow roll my fermentation starts on those wine batches probably waiting 48 hours after adding K-Meta before taking final SG and Acid readings. THEN I'll adjust and pitch the yeast. When using just juice, pressed or concentrate, this isn't a concern since the without the pulp there is much less chance of an change in SG or pH until the fermentation starts.

The muscidine I made started off with a pH of 3.2. I checked it in the field and after I crushed. The brix was 19 so I added enough sugar to raise it to 22brix, but I did not recheck the pH.

The other day I racked it and it was down to 3.01pH after I degassed it. A less accurate (or cheeper) meter read 2.9.

Thinking the fermentation would raise the pH, I was shocked to find it so low.

So,, was it adding the sugar that dropped it? I started a new Thread titled "Sugar and pH" to find out.

 

[Scooter68]

I wonder if just the further breaking down of the fruit caused the release of more acid. (Assuming that you left the skins in the must.)

 

[Tnuscan]

I wonder if just the further breaking down of the fruit caused the release of more acid. (Assuming that you left the skins in the must.)

If this question was for me, I would feel beter if this were the case. I really tested, then, calibrated and re-calibrated my pH meter to make sure it was accurate, using fresh calibrating solutions.

 

[Scooter68]

If this question was for me, I would feel beter if this were the case. I really tested, then, calibrated and re-calibrated my pH meter to make sure it was accurate, using fresh calibrating solutions.

Yup that was for you. I'm sure the meter was reading a correctly. I've recently been working with two x 2.5 gallon batchs of Zinfandel and Blush Zinfandell from Canned concentrate. They both dropped in Acid readings in the first few days of fermentation. 24 hours before I started the fermentation I mixed up the concentrate, added the Simply Syrup solution to each batch and found that their pH readings were too high. One about 3.96 I believe and the other 3.80. So I adjusted them over the next 24 hours and finally pitched the yeast once I had them at 3.36 (Blush Zin) and 3.61 (Zin) The Blush snuck up on me but I decided to go ahead with the fermentation - even though I would have preferred a pH between 3.4 and 3.6 (I'd been careful add my acid blend and stir well then let it sit before readings were taken. )
So 3 days later once fermentation was clearly started I checked them both again. Blush Zin's SG had dropped from 1.082 to 1.066 and pH had dropped from 3.36 to 2.65 !!! The Zin's SG had dropped from 1.082 to 1.062 and the pH had gone from 3.61 to 3.05

Since both of these were straight concentrate juices with no skins or pulp the only thing I can figure is that the fermentation process frees up acid.

IF of course anyone has another explanation I'm always willing to learn. That's why I check in here daily and read all the new activity and comments.


At last check on 19th I racked them into 4 liter carboys with the following readings:
Blush Zinfandel SG .992 pH 3.06
Zinfandel SG 1.012 pH 3.28

So As I've seen in the past the pH readings moderate (Rise) as the fermentation finishes and should continue to moderate somewhat for the next month or two at least. I imagine someone can give us a better explanation for this but I suspect that it has something to do with the chemicals/acids that form and dissipate during the normal fermentation process. Again - ready to hear from the experts or more experienced folk on here.

 

[Tnuscan]

Well I'm at 1.030 for the 2nd night on my little 2 gal. blueberry batch. I've been getting some advice on my thread @ the intro. section and I think someone said that at 3 day's with no movement, time to rack it?
I think it's is in one of my books's, but at racking, I'm done with the fruit right? Squeeze the fruit bag and siphon over to the carboy. I'm actually planning on using 2 1 gal. wine bottles because of my small batch.
Funny/embarrassing thing about my earlier posts concerning my mix "working". I did not add water to the air lock This is day 16 and I still have yet to see any foaming or bubbles other than the bubbles introduced by flipping the fruit bag.

Hi!
What that means is when your wine finishes dry, usually around 0.998 to 0.990 and stays at this same sg. for 3 days without dropping further, it's finished fermenting.

If it's still sitting at 1.030 after 3 days you will need to re-start by adding more yeast, and it will probably need to be something like EC-1118.