Petite Pearl Ph question

[Masbustelo]

I have five gallons of Petite Pearl that I made about a year ago, I'm getting ready to bottle it. I racked it in December and the Ph was 3.52. For better or worse I cold stabilized it and then checked it today and it is 3.36. To me it tastes fine. Will I regret it down the road if I don't raise the Ph a little or should I leave it be? I used 71B and then MLF.

 

[Masbustelo]

Or in other words is 3.36 an acceptable Ph for a big red?

 

[Johnd]

Or in other words is 3.36 an acceptable Ph for a big red?

It’s fine as a safe pH number, what’s it taste like would be my question. Consider doing some bench trials to determine if the wine improves or gets worse as you add or remove some acidity.

 

[KevinL]

I have five gallons of Petite Pearl that I made about a year ago, I'm getting ready to bottle it. I racked it in December and the Ph was 3.52. For better or worse I cold stabilized it and then checked it today and it is 3.36. To me it tastes fine. Will I regret it down the road if I don't raise the Ph a little or should I leave it be? I used 71B and then MLF.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the pH go the other way after cold stabilization? Or does the acid precipitation release more hydrogen Ions?

I've got some Pearl to bring in next month so I'll be interested to know how yours turns out. I'm pretty excited about it overall.

 

[Masbustelo]

Kevin I racked it one last time before I bottled it. After racking I topped it off wth Marquette and ended up with Ph 3.45. www.mngrapes.org/resource/resmgr/CCC_17.../Eno_Sat_4_Petite_Pearl_Tasti.pdf. [Enter Petite Pearl (TP2-1-24)] in the search engine to find this link. . Some of these prize winning wines selling for $20-30 per bottle were in the 3.35 range. I think some of these Midwestern wines can more than hold their own compared with west coast productions. I suspect few years in the cellar will do them well. I can't address your chemistry questions. I am a poor chemist and mathematician. If I can fend off the raccoons I hope to harvest some home grown Petite Pearl in a few days. I'm at brix 20 at the moment. I have five Verona vines that should start producing in two more years and plan on doing home grown field blends of the two.

 

[Johnd]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the pH go the other way after cold stabilization?

When one cold stabilizes a wine with a pH below 3.65, the pH will decrease, if the starting pH is greater than 3.65, the resultant pH will increase. If you’re terribly interested in the chemistry behind the scenes, here’s a link:

https://extension.psu.edu/cold-stabilization-options-for-wineries

 

[KevinL]

A good read. Thanks John.

I'm pretty excited about Petite Pearl for it's wine making ability myself. I tested mine 16 Days ago with the following numbers: 15 Brix, 2.84 pH, and 13.5 g/L TA. Since my only experience before this has been with Frontenac, seeing a T/A number under 15 well before harvest is promising.

They're getting taken apart right now by wasps and raccoons. 3 Raccoons have now had terrible, unforeseeable accidents, but I'm still seeing losses. I hope to do another test this week and probably bring them in if the TA drops low enough so I at least have a little to play with for this season.

 

[KevinL]

Turns out my additional losses weren't the raccoons, Possums this time around. One has had a terrible, unforeseeable accident. On the level of destruction they rank above Chipmunks, but below Raccoons.

Test Results are in:

18 Brix, 3.07 pH and 7.95 g/L TA. I have to say I heard of Petite Pearls lower TA numbers for a cold climate grape, but I must admit I'm quite pleased to see it for myself. I hope to hold out on harvest for a little while longer to see if I can get more sugar (as long as I can tolerate losing a bit each day to pests and vermin.)

 

[Masbustelo]

I
Wonder with all this rain if they'll get much over 20 brix this year?

 

[KevinL]

I
Wonder with all this rain if they'll get much over 20 brix this year?

Next Week is solid rain for me. I'm not really expecting much by way of sugar over 20 at this point because of that. I called another grower who has some land further south from me and he suggested letting PP hang until pH hits 3.4. My losses continue to mount (mice now...). I feel like once I figure out a solution for one pest another emerges. 60-70% gone at this point. I'm going to tough it out and see if I can stomach coming out to missing clusters every morning for two more weeks. Good thing this is a learning year.

 

[Masbustelo]

Kevin I saw all that rain coming, so I picked mine. For about ten days mine sat at 20 Brix. Raccoons were a battle too, but I picked 60 pounds. My soil is much richer than yours and I picked at 3.75 and .8 T.A. They seemed a little immature. Next year I plan to leave them untill the Ph is higher, the T.A lower and then acidulate the must.

 

[KevinL]

I let what little I had left hang. Sadly I've got 100% loss now. Possums and Raccoons finished them off (2 and 6 "accidents" now respectively). I pulled in about 3 lbs this morning so I have something to check the numbers on. I'll probably just press them into a few cups of grape juice for the kids. Next year I'll have more to start with and I'll start controlling for pests earlier.

It's not that big of a deal since I officially wasn't counting on a crop this year. Still it's a little disappointing.

 

[Masbustelo]

I'm curious what the numbers are after all the rain?

 

[KevinL]

Just got them tested, didn't have a chance until later:

20 Brix
3.32 pH
6.3 g/L TA

Not bad numbers overall, really. I went ahead and crushed and pressed what I had into 16 oz. of grape juice. It went over well with the kids. Very sweet and thick.