The Tongue-O-pH-Meter

[jh0330]

I don't own a pH meter but I do have litmus (indicator) paper.
I am making wild blackberry wine and need to check my pH.

I've heard multiple times, while researching, that the tongue is more sensitive to acidity than a pH meter.

I will make a cup of sugar water with enough sugar to match the SG reading of my must.
Then I will add small levels of acid blend and test with the litmus paper until desired pH is reached. (I can also see how accurate my taste buds are)
I will use this acidic sugar water as reference.
I will add acid slowly and thoroughly mixing and taste test till desired acidity is reached with reference to the water we made.

Do you think this will work?

 

[sour_grapes]

I don't see any harm in trying this.

 

[Runningwolf]

I don't own a pH meter but I do have litmus (indicator) paper.
I am making wild blackberry wine and need to check my pH.

I've heard multiple times, while researching, that the tongue is more sensitive to acidity than a pH meter.

I will add acid slowly and thoroughly mixing and taste test till desired acidity is reached with reference to the water we made.

Do you think this will work?

Your tongue will not replace a ph meter. You need an accurate ph meter to make accurate S02 additions. PH is the most important number you can measure.

I do agree acid can be adjusted by taste but you may want to do bench trials and let them sit a day or two and then test again before making adjustments to your carboy.

 

[sour_grapes]

I've heard multiple times, while researching, that the tongue is more sensitive to acidity than a pH meter.

Further to what Dan said: It occurred to me that it is possible from your note that you may not be aware that there is a difference between pH and acidity. I hope to be wrong, but do you need any clarification on that point?

 

[jh0330]

I don't see any harm in trying this.

Hey, thanks for the input.
I tried it!
My blackberry-must actually tasted more acidic than my acid-sugar-water.
I think this can be expected as blackberries are usually pretty acidic.
Good thing I taste tested! I was about to add a bit of acid-blend (just because I bought some hahah and in a trial cup, it tasted good with some more acid).

Your tongue will not replace a ph meter. You need an accurate ph meter to make accurate S02 additions. PH is the most important number you can measure.

I do agree acid can be adjusted by taste but you may want to do bench trials and let them sit a day or two and then test again before making adjustments to your carboy.

Hi!
For addition of SO2, I am using campden tablets so I just added 1 per gallon.
My chemistry is a bit rusty and I totally forgot this!

SO2 + H2O <==> H+ + HSO3-

For the future (if I am lucky enough to buy more and better equipment), I
will use this technique to add exactly a desired amount of SO2!
Thanks

Further to what Dan said: It occurred to me that it is possible from your note that you may not be aware that there is a difference between pH and acidity. I hope to be wrong, but do you need any clarification on that point?

Yes please!
I paid good money in university for chem. butt I already forgot =.,=


In conclusion though, I felt like I could taste roughly on weather I should add acid or not.

 

[BernardSmith]

don't claim to be an expert here but the actual pH is critical when it comes to the amount of free SO2 you need to add and if the pH is too low this can affect the efficacy of the yeast in converting sugar to alcohol. TA - titratable acid, is different. This affects the flavor. You would tend to add acid blend IF the wine needs to have additional bite. pH is about the strength of the acid (some acids are weak and some are strong). TA is about the amount of acid in the wine (so you can have a great deal of an acid or very little)... and if you create a chart you can imagine that you can have a great deal of a strong acid or a great deal of a weak acid and these would be very different. You could also have very little of a strong acid or very little of a weak acid and that too would be very different... In other words, while both TA and pH are measures of acidity they are measuring something very different.
Different fruits have different acids - apples, for example are mainly malic acid. Grapes have mainly tartaric acid and oranges for example, are mainly citric acid. I believe - but am not certain - that tartaric is a stronger acid than malic...That is to say that 1000 molecules of tartaric acid will produce more hydrogen ions in a wine than 1000 molecules of malic and that means that molecule for molecule the pH of grape wine will be more acidic than say apple wine.

 

[Reluctant Chemist]

Not so fast with the tongue

The tongue is very sensitive to acid, and possibly to pH, but it is not calibrated. With a few years of practice you might get it right, but not right away.

I worked with a crusty Italian winemaker with 40+ years of experience, and he could come with 0.1 pH unit and 0.5 g/L for pH and TA. He was a rarity.

As mentioned in other posts, pH and Titratable Acidity are different. You need the specific pH value to know how much Free SO2 to add. You need to know the acidity levels for proper wine balance. (That one you can get close to right with your tongue.)

A simple ebook describing the difference between pH and acidity, and some other facts about wine acids, can be found on the Accuvin website. Here is the link: http://www.accuvin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Monitoring-Acids-and-pH-in-Winemaking.pdf

You should get yourself a pH meter and burette, or if you are adverse to laboratory work, use the Accuvin pH test kit and Titratable Acidity test kit. Thy don't require any equipment.