I finally bought a acid titration kit at my LHS. I checked the batch
of Blackberry wine I made about 4 months ago and it has a TA of around
1.4%!

Is my only option to add some sodium bitartirate and then cold
stabelize? I have read that it should be around .6

I checked a rasberry kit I made before that and it is around .7 Is
that about right? It tastes good to me....

Thanks!

Alex.

"Alex Brewer" > wrote in message
m...
> I finally bought a acid titration kit at my LHS. I checked the batch
> of Blackberry wine I made about 4 months ago and it has a TA of around
> 1.4%!
>
> Is my only option to add some sodium bitartirate and then cold
> stabelize? I have read that it should be around .6
>
> I checked a rasberry kit I made before that and it is around .7 Is
> that about right? It tastes good to me....

You can cold-stabilize without adding anything and see what happens. Why is
the TA so high? Did you add too much tartaric acid? If so, you could add
some potassium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate to lower the TA. I don't
know much about the natural acids in blackberries, so I can't tell you what
to do if the TA is high from acids other than tartaric. I'm sure someone
else knows more.

Good luck,

John

Alex,
First off- if it tastes good to you then dont rush to make any
corrections.
That having been said- did you degas the sample before making the test?
This is necessary to get a correct value. Next- verify that the numbers that
you got are repeatable and you are sure of the amounts of each item added.
Ex- my test requires 15 ml of wine/must, and then 2-3 drops of indicator.
Rinse the syringe and then add 10 ml of Sodium Hydroxide to the syringe. Add
the Sodium Hydroxide until the color change is permanent. (Note- this can be
very difficult in a red/ dark wine such as your blackberry as it is quite
hard to see the color change and end point- see end note for how to
compensate for this) So let's say you add the entire 10 ml of Sodium
Hydoxide and still dont have a permanent color change. Your current value is
1.00 t.a. Fill the syringe again to 10 ml and continue adding and mixing at
each addition looking for the color change that stays. Let's say it is
achieved at 3 more mls. Your TA then is 1.3 T. A. Most of the time you dont
need to go over 10 ml ( or 1.00 T.A.), but it happens.
Now with the reds/dark wines you can add Distilled water to the sample
to thin out the color and better see the end point (permanent color change)
The exact amount of distilled water is not generally important, but I have
heard that in some test kits it can make a difference. Think of it this way-
you have 15 ml of wine/must in a jar. No matter how much water you add you
still only have the amount of acid in the wine juice total. That is why this
works out. Your other option is with a PH meter which I assume you dont
have? HTH
John Dixon
"Alex Brewer" > wrote in message
m...
> I finally bought a acid titration kit at my LHS. I checked the batch
> of Blackberry wine I made about 4 months ago and it has a TA of around
> 1.4%!
>
> Is my only option to add some sodium bitartirate and then cold
> stabelize? I have read that it should be around .6
>
> I checked a rasberry kit I made before that and it is around .7 Is
> that about right? It tastes good to me....
>
> Thanks!
>
> Alex.

Yep, that's just how I did it. It took the full 10ml plus another 4!
It almost filled the vial that came with the test kit.

As far as taste, the rasberry is just fine. The blackberry tases
like.... well, acid! Pretty nasty stuff.

I should have checked the TA and adjusted before fermentation, but oh
well. I think the reason that it was so high was that these were
domesticated blackberries. They are traditionally more 'tart' than
their wild cousins. Not bad for being free, though. 25lbs is a lot
of blackberries.

I guess I will try to add some bicarbonate to a small sample and see
what that does.

Alex.

"J Dixon" > wrote in message >...
> Alex,
> First off- if it tastes good to you then dont rush to make any
> corrections.
> That having been said- did you degas the sample before making the test?
> This is necessary to get a correct value. Next- verify that the numbers that
> you got are repeatable and you are sure of the amounts of each item added.
> Ex- my test requires 15 ml of wine/must, and then 2-3 drops of indicator.
> Rinse the syringe and then add 10 ml of Sodium Hydroxide to the syringe. Add
> the Sodium Hydroxide until the color change is permanent. (Note- this can be
> very difficult in a red/ dark wine such as your blackberry as it is quite
> hard to see the color change and end point- see end note for how to
> compensate for this) So let's say you add the entire 10 ml of Sodium
> Hydoxide and still dont have a permanent color change. Your current value is
> 1.00 t.a. Fill the syringe again to 10 ml and continue adding and mixing at
> each addition looking for the color change that stays. Let's say it is
> achieved at 3 more mls. Your TA then is 1.3 T. A. Most of the time you dont
> need to go over 10 ml ( or 1.00 T.A.), but it happens.
> Now with the reds/dark wines you can add Distilled water to the sample
> to thin out the color and better see the end point (permanent color change)
> The exact amount of distilled water is not generally important, but I have
> heard that in some test kits it can make a difference. Think of it this way-
> you have 15 ml of wine/must in a jar. No matter how much water you add you
> still only have the amount of acid in the wine juice total. That is why this
> works out. Your other option is with a PH meter which I assume you dont
> have? HTH
> John Dixon
> "Alex Brewer" > wrote in message
> m...
> > I finally bought a acid titration kit at my LHS. I checked the batch
> > of Blackberry wine I made about 4 months ago and it has a TA of around
> > 1.4%!
> >
> > Is my only option to add some sodium bitartirate and then cold
> > stabelize? I have read that it should be around .6
> >
> > I checked a rasberry kit I made before that and it is around .7 Is
> > that about right? It tastes good to me....
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Alex.

"Alex Brewer" > wrote in message
om...
> I guess I will try to add some bicarbonate to a small sample and see
> what that does.

Use potassium carbonate or bicarbonate - not baking soda. There's no way to
remove the sodium from the wine, and it may end up tasting salty.

Tom S