TA problem with Black Spanish

[TexasGrand]

TA is off the charts. I crushed Black Spanish this weekend, put in the primary, added meta. Checked the ph today with my meter and ph is 3.34. Checked TA with the ph meter and the color change method and it takes double the quantity of sodium hydroxide as the quantity of must sample to get close to an 8.2 ph with the meter or a color change.

I checked calibration of the meter and its good.

What should I do or check to proceed with fermentation?

 

[whackfol]

You don't say what the normality of your NaOH is nor the sample size. What is the TA?

Has fermentation started? If so there is a good chance carbonic acid is skewing your results. Either way, degassing or boil the sample to drive off the CO2 and retest.

 

[TexasGrand]

You don't say what the normality of your NaOH is nor the sample size. What is the TA?

Has fermentation started? If so there is a good chance carbonic acid is skewing your results. Either way, degassing or boil the sample to drive off the CO2 and retest.

Thanks for your help whackfol.
My acid test kit asks for a 3ml wine sample and 3ml sodium hydroxide. Nowhere does it list the normality of the NaHO. The kit instructions are to multiply the ml of the NaHO used by .25

Testing with the color regent in the kit I used 6ml of NaHO to get a color change x .25 = 1.50

Testing 3 ml with my ph meter I used 6.5ml of naHO x .25 = 1.63

Testing a 5ml sample required 10.5ml of NaHO.

Heating the sample did not change the results.

My brix is low (15) 1.060 SG, because I had to harvest the grapes or lose them to green june bugs. I have not added any sugar, nutrient or yeast.

 

[Turock]

How does the juice taste to you? The PH isn't terribly low. If it tastes acceptable to you, go with it.

 

[TexasGrand]

How does the juice taste to you? The PH isn't terribly low. If it tastes acceptable to you, go with it.

Thanks Turock. The juice tastes good, like grape juice.
If the acid is still high after fermentation, what would you recommend?

 

[Turock]

If the acid is too high once you've done some bulk aging--which ,by the way, can remove some offending esters, then you could treat with potassium carbonate and cold stabilize. The potassium carbonate combines with the tartaric acid to form potassium bitartrate which will drop out of the wine, increasing the PH. You need to cold stabilize at refrigerator temp or lower.

Because the juice tastes good to you and not acidic, I'd go with what you have and you can further evaluate it after it has bulk aged. And you will get a slight rise in PH after the crush because of potassium extraction. You may find that you need to make no adjustments to this wine after bulk aging.

 

[WeimarWine]

TA for Black Spanish grapes

TexasGrand,

I grow Black Spanish grapes near Weimar, TX. At 15 to 16 Brix my pH is usually in the range of 3.0 to 3.2 with a TA of 11. At 18 to 19 Brix pH is in the range of 3.2 to 3.4 with TA of about 9. We usually harvest at about 22 Brix with pH about 3.6 and TA of 8. This grape is almost always a high TA even at 24 Brix.

One option which has not been discussed that you could consider is to take the must off of the skins and ferment just the juice. It makes a very nice crisp rose' or blush wine which you can stabilize with sorbate and sweeten to taste. It won't look much like a rose' or blush because the juice is so dark, but it turns out very nice. I usually take a portion of my harvest and ferment the juice off of the skins.

Weimar Wine

Mike

 

[Turock]

Here's something else I just thought of, altho your ferment may be too far along now. You can bentonite the primary. Bentonite will drop out tartaric acid. It also lowers the potassium so you may get a PH shift. But acid can be added back, if needed, later on without the risk of it coming out. Just another little tool you might be able to use in the future if it's too late now.