pH in Sour Cherry Wine

[Dom Lausic]

Hello All,

I'm making a sour cherry wine, using 10 lb of sour cherries. I've added just under 2 gal of water. SG is 1.082, but my pH is sitting at 3.2.

Wondering the best method to increase the pH. I understand that 3.5-3.6 should be my goal for this sour cherry wine??

Looking for your suggestions.

Thx

 

[Scooter68]

3.4 to 3.6 is the range I use for fruit wines. A little calcium carbonate can help you out but whatever amount you think you need... add no more than half of that and wait several hours before retesting. (Overshooting and RE-adjusting is NO fun.)

Would suggest more fruit per gallon though. Normally with most fruit I shoot for between 5 1/2 to 7 pounds per gallon. My first few wines were 'ok' at 4 - 4 1/2 pounds but the difference from just one more pound is really significant. To do that easily you can check out a health food store for tart cherry concentrate. I've used 16 oz bottles that were supposed to make 1 gallon of 'juice'. With those I use 4 bottles for a 3 gallon batch.

 

[BernardSmith]

You are referring to pH but pH has little to do with flavor. And yeast should be able to handle a pH of 3.2. Too early perhaps but what is the TA at this time? It's TA that you experience as tartness and TA is a measure not of the strength of the acids but their quantity in the wine

 

[Dom Lausic]

You are referring to pH but pH has little to do with flavor. And yeast should be able to handle a pH of 3.2. Too early perhaps but what is the TA at this time? It's TA that you experience as tartness and TA is a measure not of the strength of the acids but their quantity in the wine

I haven't measured the TA yet. What would the ideal measure be?

 

[BernardSmith]

Your tongue is probably the most effective sensor when it comes to TA (it is, after all, all about taste) but as a rule of thumb you might want to aim for around 6 - 6.5 g/L of acid

 

[Dom Lausic]

Your tongue is probably the most effective sensor when it comes to TA (it is, after all, all about taste) but as a rule of thumb you might want to aim for around 6 - 6.5 g/L of acid

So i just did a quick TA test, and it seems like we are sitting at 7.5 g/L of acid. This a little too high?? If so, what do you recommend to lower it?

 

[BernardSmith]

TA likely falls as fermentation proceeds so I would not be so quick to make any changes. Taste the wine. As I say, your tongue is a sensitive tool. TA is all about taste...

 

[Dom Lausic]

TA likely falls as fermentation proceeds so I would not be so quick to make any changes. Taste the wine. As I say, your tongue is a sensitive tool. TA is all about taste...

Ok awesome! So i will pitch the yeast (using EC-111) and see where we end up once we are finished in primary. I'll test when racking to secondary and see how we are looking.

I'm finding it difficult to test by taste, as the juice is very sweet..... so i can't really tell. But once the sugar is converted, hopefully i'll be able to get a better gauge.

Also, i was considering back-sweetening before bottling, so that may also help if the wine is a little tart??

 

[Scooter68]

pH testing is only really useful before fermentation and then after the fermented wine has been thoroughly de-gassed. CO2 will warp the test results during fermentation and until all CO2 is gone from the wine.

 

[Dom Lausic]

Ok

pH testing is only really useful before fermentation and then after the fermented wine has been thoroughly de-gassed. CO2 will warp the test results during fermentation and until all CO2 is gone from the wine.

Ok great! I will let it run as is for now and see how things progress.

Will post updates as I get them.