Hi guys, I've been making wine for a while and never thought to check the PH of the water I'm using in kits. Apparently my RO water filter at home which also has a mineral stage to add them back in... is producing water around a PH of 9. Considering as I have about 1000 bottles made with this water did I substantially affect the final PH of all the products? I just measured the PH with a fresh calibrated meter and it came out to 3.5 on one of my reds, so that seems about right... however I have no idea what it is supposed to be. I guess I'm just worried that my wines are not everything they should have been because I substantially raised the PH.
Does the PH of the after matter?
- Thread starter kuziwk
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You are fine.
First of all, kits are buffered, so the final pH will not depend strongly on the pH of the water you add.
Second, pH is a logarithmic scale. Let's assume for a moment that there is NO buffering, just adding pure liquids of two different pH values. If your kit has 16 liters of juice at a pH of 3.5, and 6 liters of water at pH of 9, (and no buffering) then the final pH = -log[(16*10^-3.5 + 7 * 10^-9)/23] = 3.65.
If you cannot quite follow all that: Don't worry, be happy!
What about a 8L kit though? I just tested a chenin Blanc 12l kit which i thought was very acidic but made with my water...it came out to 2.8 So I guess I should be good. Just curious since I don’t have my graphing calculator handy, in your calculation above what would be the final PH if neutral water was used. What about if a 8L kit was used?
It does not need to be a graphing calculator. Surely, the electronic device upon which you typed your plaintive query has the ability to compute:
pH = -log[(8 * 10^-3.5 + 15 * 10^-9)/23] = 3.95, doesn't it?
Its been years since I've done calculations like this back in school, last time I remember it was on my graphing calculator. I also never though I would have to do Log calcs ever again either, lol. Either way though do these kits being "buffered" make a significant difference? Obviously the buffered element is not something that can be calculated in.
The water you ran through the RO unit will have a very low ion/ mineral content. That means that a small addition of hydronium ion (acid) will have a large change in pH.
As a practical example of buffering, if I take a sparkling seltzer water with ingredients of “carbonated water, organic natural flavor” the shift in pH from fresh out of the can to flat is 3.71 to 6.53. ,,,, a citrus soda with an ingredient list that contains “citric acid (a buffering agent), carbonated water, HFCS, etc“ has a shift from 2.98 to 3.04. ,,,,,, or a natural beverage M beer does a shift from 4.30 to 4.37.
I like Paul’s explanation to the extent that it gives me a tool to run a factory pH controller, dumping acid into a process line, ,,,,, but for taste the buffering influences the sensory impact ex the M beer had a CO2 drop in TA of 0.17% to 0.07% which reflects the minerals buffering the system. ,,,,, another buffering example is have you ever counted how many teaspoons of calcium carbonate (or potassium) are required to shift the pH in rhubarb by 0.1 unit? The juice or more correctly the acids in the juice win and ya’ll give up.
Your 8 liter kit has a lot of mineral solids (dirt AKA body) which buffer what pH will be.
As a practical example of buffering, if I take a sparkling seltzer water with ingredients of “carbonated water, organic natural flavor” the shift in pH from fresh out of the can to flat is 3.71 to 6.53. ,,,, a citrus soda with an ingredient list that contains “citric acid (a buffering agent), carbonated water, HFCS, etc“ has a shift from 2.98 to 3.04. ,,,,,, or a natural beverage M beer does a shift from 4.30 to 4.37.
I like Paul’s explanation to the extent that it gives me a tool to run a factory pH controller, dumping acid into a process line, ,,,,, but for taste the buffering influences the sensory impact ex the M beer had a CO2 drop in TA of 0.17% to 0.07% which reflects the minerals buffering the system. ,,,,, another buffering example is have you ever counted how many teaspoons of calcium carbonate (or potassium) are required to shift the pH in rhubarb by 0.1 unit? The juice or more correctly the acids in the juice win and ya’ll give up.
Your 8 liter kit has a lot of mineral solids (dirt AKA body) which buffer what pH will be.
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Ahh thanks thats a great exlpanation. Come to think of it i was watering some CBD cannabis last night and adjusting the PH of the water since its very picky, i used lemon juice to bring the PH down and i was surprised that just a few drops brought it way down. This is actually what got me thinking about the PH of the water im using it make the wine, this was the first time i actually checked the PH of the water.
Yep...you’re good to go on that pH. Al the best with your batch.
