My Cabernet is 3.28 ph!

[blueflint]

I have been making kit wines for the past couple years. On 8-11-13, I started a Winexpert World Vineyard French Cabernet Sauvignon. I followed the direction pretty close. My starting gravity was 1.092. At 1.010, it was racked off the sediment into a glass carboy. Once finished fermenting, it was racked off the sediment again, degassed and k-meta added (but did not add the potassium sorbate since it was not back sweetened). It has been bulk aging it in a glass carboy since. The other day, I pulled a small sample and it really wasn't what I expected. I really couldn't put my finger on it but it seemed tart and unbalanced.

I recently got a Milwaukee MV101 ph meter and last evening while testing a couple batches of white wine, I decided to check the Cabernet. I was shocked to find it is 3.28 I rechecked, went back to and recalibrated the meter, checked the Cabernet and the white wines again, the Cabernet came in again at 3.28. I went and pulled a cork on a commercial bottle of Cabernet, it tested 3.68 so I am sure all of my ph measurements are correct. Now, I am scratching my head as to the low ph of my kit Cabernet. I never checked the ph on this Cabernet before as I had no reason to. From what I have read, the kits are already ph and acid corrected by the manufacturer. I also did a quick TA test and it looks to be around .9 (well maybe .8, I diluted it but it is still difficult to judge a red wine compared to a white in testing)

So...now I am pretty sure what I was tasting was a combination of a young wine and low ph - high acid. So at this point, what is the best approach to raising the ph and reducing the acid? I have read not to try MLF in a kit wine as WE used malic acid to balance things out and since I already added k meta, it won't take off anyway. I personally don't like high acid wines. Potassium Bicarbonate?

Thanks, Tony

 

[GreginND]

First, can I say I would kill to have a pH that high in our hybrid grapes?

Anyway, personally I would only do chemical deacidification as a last resort. In my opinion it tends to throw other things out of balance.

You do have other options to try first.

I would first do MLF even though it is a kit. It obviously wasn't balanced to begin with so it certainly won't hurt. But since you've already upped the SO2, it may be a little work to get it going. You can also try to cold stabilize it to see if you get any of the tartrates to drop out.

You could also try adding just a little bit of sugar - not to the point it tastes sweeter - but just enough to balance the acid and lift the fruit flavors. That seems to be more and more common in easy drinking red wines these days.

Lastly, you can make another wine that is lower in acid and try blending it.

 

[wood1954]

i used calcium carbonate on about 6 wines last fall. Some pre and some post ferment. Didn't seem to affect the flavor or aroma at all. All the wines are now precipitating in the bottle as i bottled all my wine before i moved. However the kits i made and didn't add calcium to are also heavily dropping crystals. I'm glad i used the calcium as some of the wine was at 2.9. I know all the kit wines are supposed to be balanced but after i got a ph meter they all tested low which would explain some of the sourness?

 

[racerdoc]

Make sure that your wine is degassed before you check your PH. If it isn't, your true PH reading will be higher. Try microwaving your sample for 30 seconds to a minute first to drive off the co2 and then recheck it.

Doc

 

[blueflint]

This Cabernet has not been touched since September so I think I will rack it off the sediment and do some minor ph adjustments with Potassium Bicarbonate. Maybe adjust it up to around 3.45 to 3.5, then degass again ( Potassium Bicarbonate is like adding Alka Seltzer), put back into the carboy and let it go a couple months and see how things settle out.

Tony

 

[racerdoc]

I would degas and recheck Ph before adding potassium bicarbonate. If it's in glass, there is still a good chance of having residual co2. Microwave a small sample and check PH to see if it changes.

 

[blueflint]

It was well degassed when I checked it, I did warm a small sample and checked it too. Definitely 3.28. From what I have been reading, it looks like Winexpert kits are designed to be 3.2 PH and .65 TA. This allows the lighter use of k-meta and overall stores well.

I adjusted mine to 3.5 PH with 13.6 grams of potassium bicarbonate. After stirring well on and off for an hour, I added k-meta and put back into the carboy. I will let it go a few months and see where things are.

The minor PH adjustment helped. It is still young and has a sharpness to it from that. It has a lot of cherry flavors but no jam or blackberry notes to it at this point, really no Cabernet notes at all. At this point, I think it could have used at least 1 more ounce of oak during fermentation, this would have added more depth...but again this is a young wine and adding oak at this point is quite different than during fermentation.

I look forward to testing and sampling this again late spring.

Tony

 

[sdelli]

It was well degassed when I checked it, I did warm a small sample and checked it too. Definitely 3.28. From what I have been reading, it looks like Winexpert kits are designed to be 3.2 PH and .65 TA. This allows the lighter use of k-meta and overall stores well.

I adjusted mine to 3.5 PH with 13.6 grams of potassium bicarbonate. After stirring well on and off for an hour, I added k-meta and put back into the carboy. I will let it go a few months and see where things are.

The minor PH adjustment helped. It is still young and has a sharpness to it from that. It has a lot of cherry flavors but no jam or blackberry notes to it at this point, really no Cabernet notes at all. At this point, I think it could have used at least 1 more ounce of oak during fermentation, this would have added more depth...but again this is a young wine and adding oak at this point is quite different than during fermentation.

I look forward to testing and sampling this again late spring.

Tony

I think you are acting way too fast for wine making! This wine is barely even born it is so young..... You start adding all kinds of chemicals to it and you will regret it down the road. You should of let it age for at least 6 months to see how it balanced out! In my opinion wine kits have way too much chemicals in them already. A low Ph would only make it easier to age it at this point. You would have to add hardly any kmeta to it which is good again. If it was still too high in TA then you could have done something more natural like cold stabilization....... Remember wine making takes PATIENCE.....

 

[Wade E]

This is a kit wine, the only reason to bother testing a kit is just to see or to practice using a PH meter. Kit wines, due to the processing the juices go through will almost always be off as far as that goes. Some of us have been in your shoes and called this to the manufacturers attn. and that is what we were told. I would not try to rectify this.