Good Day from WV

[Lopez]

Whats up?

My name is Mitch. I've been in the home wine-making for 2-3 years now. I got into the hobby to restart the family tradition that was lost in the last 15 years. I'm still learning and consumed with reading and experimenting.

I've had moderate success so far. 2009 Concord turned out excellent. The rest are still in the carboys fermented dry and nearing bottling. Niagara is doing well, Table Red and Labrusca are a different story. I think I've got some High Tannin and/or High Acid going on. Wife said it gives a bit of the biting on a banana peel/grape juice dry mouth feeling. Hopefully bulk aging/back sweetening/bottle age will do the trick.

Wine List To Date:

2009: 10 Gal- French Concord

2010: 5 Gal- Labrusca
5 Gal- "Table" Red
5 Gal- Niagara

2011: 10 Gal- Alicante Bouschet
5 Gal- Sangiovese
5 Gal- Pino Noir
5 Gal- Muscat

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!

Test the acidity in the others - see if it is inline with what red wines should be.

Dry Reds = 0.60 - 0.70%
Sweet Reds = 0.65 - 0.80%

 

[Lopez]

Thanks for the advice. I have the TA Test Kit. Just the $10 cheapo. I think I need to dilute the red to get a more accurate reading as I was around 12 CC's of added solution before I got a permanent color change on the first go around.

How much TA can back sweetening balance before its obvious you have too much acid. I don't want to start sweetening to taste thinking it will balance and end up with a semi-sweet tear jerker

 

[winemaker_3352]

If you are at the higher end of the ranges listed above - backsweetening can balance out the acidity.

If you are much higher than that - you might end up with something like those sour candies.

Something sweet - but still gives you that sour pucker.

 

[Lopez]

I'm going to test the TA again this evening. The Ph is right around 3.2. I'm also going to run a chromatography test to see if i have high Malic content. I think that may be the culprit. If so there may be nothing I can do about it as I have added K-Meta.