New member with 6 gallons of fresh Cardonel juice, need advice.

[ibglowin]

Good luck with that.

 

[strut]

Good luck with that.

Are you saying this information is incorrect?

 

[peaches9324]

Thanks everyone that puts my mind at ease.

I got all three of the varieties from a local vineyard in Southern Indiana. The only cost was a bottle of each when they're done! My mother got some of each to make jam. She said the Chambourcin made the best jam she has ever had.

What a deal!

 

[sour_grapes]

The current pH of 3.7 is actually to high for cold-stabilization.

"Cold Stabilization. Wines with a pH greater than 3.65 should not be cold stabilized. When wines are cold-stabilized, the goal is to precipitate potassium bitartrate crystals so that they don’t fall out of solution in the bottle. Above pH 3.65, this salt acts like an acid. So, by removing an acid from the solution, it causes your pH to increase. However, if the wine’s pH is LESS THAN 3.65, cold stabilization will help to LOWER your pH. Below this point, potassium bitartrate acts as a base, so removing from solution causes the solution to become more acidic. Pretty cool, huh?"

http://enology.umn.edu/2012/10/17/high-total-acidity-and-high-ph-how-to-handle-it/

So the premise is to use tartaric acid just to get the pH down below 3.65 and then cold crash to lower it even more. This is the most pH "bang" for my TA "buck".

Here is a perhaps better explanation: http://www.moundtop.com/pdf/Winemaking-TartrateInstability-rev2.pdf

 

[strut]

Interesting. This states that the "tipping point" in table wine is actually pH 3.9, where as pH 3.65 is tartaric acid's species in pure water.

With that, it looks like I should just cold crash and go from there.

Thanks for the link sour_grapes!

 

[strut]

After reading as much as I could find on tartaric acid species pH tipping point, the general consensus was still around 3.65. Out of an abundance of caution, and since there wasn't any real harm in a 1g/l dose of tartaric at this point, I went ahead and gave it this dose. This should get my pH down to 3.6, and raise my TA to 0.8%. I will cold crash, which should both lower the pH further to ~3.5 and lower the TA back to around the 0.7% I started with. That's the plan anyway... At least I'm learning a bit

I ordered an SO2 test kit.