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Is sour cherry wine better than sweet cherry wine?
(Phil) wrote:
> When you say, 'acidify', what do you mean? I brew beer (this is my
> 1st EVER wine!) and sometimes 'acidify' my sparge water with lactic
> acid. I do have PH strips. What am I looking for? When do I
> 'acidify'? Is lactic acid a sufficent substance to 'acidify' with?
To acidify simply means to add acid to the must/wine. This obviously
increases the tartness and decreases the pH. The former (for tartness)
is only necessary when the must/wine lacks acidity/tartness, the
latter is only necessary when at excessively high pH (and is then done
for reasons of stability). A desirable pH range would be 3.0-3.6, with
whites lying in the lower half of this range and reds lying in the
upper half. I wouldn't acidify with lactic acid (at least not by any
significant degree) because this will give a lactic (milky/cheesy)
character. Use tartaric or malic acid instead.
> Yes Ben I was 'pulp' fermenting. (learned a new term;-) and I was just
> following what it said in the recipie. FWIW my gravity sample jar had
> pulp and all kinds of crap in it. Not sure it this had an effect on
> the reading.
Yes, it does.
> It started to ferment again to beat the band! Foam on
> top and lots of airlock activity. It really gives me peace of mind to
> get it out of the plastic bucket off the couple of leaves, creepy
> crawlers, pits, and pulp, and into a sterilized glass baloon with a
> sterilzed stopper and airlock.
Sounds good then.
HTH,
Ben
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