This was my first year making wine and I guess I should have tested my acid
more often.
Harvested Foch last Oct with a Brix of 18 and TA 9.2, PH 3.3.

I did nothing at crush other than add sugar.

I planned to ML and cold stabilize. The Foch went through ML until about mid
December. My carboys were in my garage. I had to keep blankets around them
with a grow mat heater between the carboys to keep the temp up above 60
degrees.

It never did get cold stabilized. I was too afraid to put it outside think
temps too low might freeze it or crack the carboy. The garage never got cold
enough with our warm winter.

Anyway.....after bottling in May, the TA is 8.75. I'll drink it (cause I
made it)....but it's a little nippy!

Questions:

1) Is there a chance the wine will settle to a lower TA over time?
To learn from mistakes, I want to address the TA issue next year right up
front:
2) Has anyone used chemical methods to lower the TA at crush (or soon
after)? If so, what do you recommend? Any down side to this?

Herman

Anyway.....after bottling in May, the TA is 8.75. I'll drink it (cause I
made it)....but it's a little nippy!

Questions:

1) Is there a chance the wine will settle to a lower TA over time?
To learn from mistakes, I want to address the TA issue next year right up
front:
2) Has anyone used chemical methods to lower the TA at crush (or soon
after)? If so, what do you recommend? Any down side to this?

Absolutely; lower it at crush. I doubt it will ever come around on
it's own but you can certainly lower it now with Potassium Bicarbonate
(or Carbonate if that is available). Cold stabilizing would help too,
can you get it to 25F? If not 40 F for a month or so may work too if
you seed it. You treat it warm, then cool it to drop the tartrates.

I use calcium carbonate on hybrids at crush. I figure out how much I
need, segregate 40% of the must and add all the calcium carbonate to
it. It foams and turns black and is revolting looking. That glop goes
back into the rest, (leaving the sediment behind).

I really don't like reds much above 6g/l; I have a Chancellor that is
drinkable now from 97, if the acid were lower it would be perfect. I
bottled it at 7.5 g/l TA....

Joe

Joe Sallustio wrote:
Absolutely; lower it at crush. I doubt it will ever come around on
it's own but you can certainly lower it now with Potassium Bicarbonate
(or Carbonate if that is available).

Joe, by "Carbonate" do you mean Calcium Carbonate that is used to lower
acid in Rhubarb recipes? I''m not very familiar with these various
chemicals.

Thanks

Herman Krug wrote in message
ink.net...
Harvested Foch last Oct with a Brix of 18 and TA 9.2, PH 3.3....after
bottling in May, the TA is 8.75. Has anyone used chemical methods to
lower the TA at crush (or soon after)? If so, what do you recommend? Any
down side to this?

Herman - You can do lots to lower acid in Foch or other high acid grapes.
1. Amelioration - Foch has lots of flavor and color. You could dilute the
juice with water, say 10% and still make a nice wine. This would have
reduced the 9.2 acid to about 8.3 grams/liter. It's not a direct reduction
because the added water makes potassium bitartrate more soluble in the
finished wine.

2. Cold soaking before fermentation - An example from my 2005 Vignoles. The
starting acid was 9.5 grams/liter. I cold soaked the must for 3 days at
about 30F. This dropped a lot of acid and the must tested at 8 grams/liter
before fermentation, a 15.8% reduction.

3. Malo-Lactic fermentation after yeast fermentation is complete - An
example from my 2005 Chambourcin. The starting acid was 9.7 grams/liter.
After yeast fermentation and ML (followed by further cold conditioning) was
complete the wine tested at 6.9 grams/liter, a 28.9% reduction.

4. Chemical acid reduction - When I do this I use potassium bicarbonate.
Each 0.9 grams/liter K bicarb. added will reduce acid by 1.0 grams/liter.
You have to be careful when doing this because pH can rise too much. I
first calculate how much acid I want to eliminate. Then I weigh up the
amount of K bicarb. needed to neutralize the acid. I put a pH probe in the
vat of wine and add the K bicarb. slowly, watching the pH. I stop K bicarb.
addition before pH gets too high even if I cannot add all the K bicarb.

I used to grow Leon Millot, a cousin of Foch. In 2002 the starting acid was
9.0 grams/liter at harvest. I put a sample in the frig. overnight and
another sample in the freezer. After warming the samples up the next day
the acid tested at 7.8 and 5.0 grams/liter respectively. From those tests I
knew I could reduce acid with pre fermentation cold soaking. I cold soaked
the must for 7 days (excessive) at about 30F. This reduced the starting
acid to 6.3 grams/liter.

Good luck!

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas USA

Well I use calcium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate, that's all I can
get locally. I think Tom S usually recommends potassium carbonate
though, that is what I was referring to.

Joe

Wino-Nouveau wrote:
Joe Sallustio wrote:
Absolutely; lower it at crush. I doubt it will ever come around on
it's own but you can certainly lower it now with Potassium Bicarbonate
(or Carbonate if that is available).

Joe, by "Carbonate" do you mean Calcium Carbonate that is used to lower
acid in Rhubarb recipes? I''m not very familiar with these various
chemicals.

Thanks