Thread: pH level
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Paul E. Lehmann[_7_] Paul E. Lehmann[_7_] is offline
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Default pH level

gene wrote:

> Paul E. Lehmann wrote:
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On Mar 28, 6:59 am, "Lou" > wrote:
>>>> I just realized that a wine I, and moreso my girlfriend, are enjoying
>>>> has a pH of 3.92 !!
>>> That does seem a bit high, but not out of reason. Many commercial reds
>>> are in the neighborhood of 3.8. Remember though that there are a bunch
>>> of factors that play into the overall "impression" that a wine makes
>>> and how well that wine is preserved. If you may find that your home
>>> made wines, left with a higher than average pH, will be out of balance
>>> or won't keep well in the cellar.
>>>
>>> Greg G.

>>
>> It would be interesting to know if the commercial high pH wines (above
>> 3.5) are sterile filtered prior to bottling and to know the free SO2
>> levels at
>> bottling. My home made wines have not had much of a shelf life at high
>> pH
>> values - less than a year. Of course, I did not sterile filter either.

>
> Many commercial wineries sterile filter all their wines.


I know they did their whites. I was not aware of them sterile filtering
their reds but I am not disputing what you say. This means that for a home
winemaker, unless one has sterile filtration equipment, then high pH wines
are very prone to infection with undesirable organisms.