Peach wine - acid adjustments

Boatboy24 · Oct 3, 2014

My peaches are thawing as I'm typing this and I just realized I have no acid blend. I have a lot of tartaric and some citric. I'm hoping I won't need to adjust, but I'd guess the odds of that are slim. Which acid would be preferable?

Edit: a query of the google machine tells me that primarily MALIC acid is found in peaches, with some citric. I think I'll go with citric, unless someone thinks that would be a mistake.

Turock · Oct 3, 2014

My only thought about citric is that if you need to do a large adjustment of the PH, too much citric could give the wine a lemony flavor. I absolutely would not use malic, even if you had some.

What I would do is bench test adjustments using both acids seperately--then use the one that tastes best to you.

Boatboy24 · Oct 3, 2014

Good point on the lemony flavor. Thanks.

Still thawing, but tomorrow I'll get things moving with SO2, pectic, etc. I'll test then.

Deezil · Oct 3, 2014

I would probably do a tartaric-citric blend to raise the pH, since you have both.

Whats the sweet-spot for Peach pH anywho? When I made peach last, all i had was a titration kit and aimed for a 0.65 % TA because my first batch was too sharp being somewhere between 0.70-0.75 %.

Boatboy24 · Oct 3, 2014

Deezil said:
I would probably do a tartaric-citric blend to raise the pH, since you have both.

Whats the sweet-spot for Peach pH anywho? When I made peach last, all i had was a titration kit and aimed for a 0.65 % TA because my first batch was too sharp being somewhere between 0.70-0.75 %.

.6-.65 is what I've read. I'll aim to be in that range, but will go by taste. I still have a bit of a hard time going by taste early on though, so the numbers help to give me an idea. I should test my 2012 peach and go from there. Perhaps I will...