Tristan,

I was hoping you could give me some guidance. I have 12 gallons of Petite
Sirah and 12 gallons of Syrah from grapes from Oakley. Both were fermented
with Syrah yeast successfully. After pressing, the juice in the Petite Sirah
has a pH of 4.1 and TA of 8.5 g/l. The Syrah has a pH of 3.9 and TA of 6.6
g/l. I can deal with the Syrah as just adding Tartaric will help. But, the
Petite is throwing me off. What should I do with both high pH and high TA??
I have not put it through MF yet, not sure if I should. I understand that
this condition can be caused by 2 factors (too much malic acid in cold
climates or too much potassium in hot climates). Regardless, I'm not quite
sure what to do??

Thanks for your help !

The too much malic is usually because the grapes are unripe; if your
sugar levels were OK I would suspect high potassium.

If you are _sure_ your TA and pH values are correct (did you degas the
samples?) adding tartaric along with cold stabilization is the only
option I know of open to small scale winemakers; when you cold
stabilize you will pull out potassium.

Joe

gp wrote:
> Tristan,
>
> I was hoping you could give me some guidance. I have 12 gallons of Petite
> Sirah and 12 gallons of Syrah from grapes from Oakley. Both were fermented
> with Syrah yeast successfully. After pressing, the juice in the Petite Sirah
> has a pH of 4.1 and TA of 8.5 g/l. The Syrah has a pH of 3.9 and TA of 6.6
> g/l. I can deal with the Syrah as just adding Tartaric will help. But, the
> Petite is throwing me off. What should I do with both high pH and high TA??
> I have not put it through MF yet, not sure if I should. I understand that
> this condition can be caused by 2 factors (too much malic acid in cold
> climates or too much potassium in hot climates). Regardless, I'm not quite
> sure what to do??
>
> Thanks for your help !

Ditto the comment about degassing and being sure of the readings. Make that
mistake myself all too often

Joe - how do you degas before testing? Do you use heat, agitation, or both?



> The too much malic is usually because the grapes are unripe; if your
> sugar levels were OK I would suspect high potassium.
>
> If you are _sure_ your TA and pH values are correct (did you degas the
> samples?) adding tartaric along with cold stabilization is the only
> option I know of open to small scale winemakers; when you cold
> stabilize you will pull out potassium.
>