Another newbie question
 

I am very new to winemaking, so I would greatly appreciate any advice.
I am making my first batch of wine from grapes. I tested the acidity
and had great difficulty figuring out the test. My husband and I each
tried it several times, but couldn't get a consistent result. The
results from the test seemed to indicate that the juice was at 36%
acidity, so I added 2 tsp of acid blend. I used foch grapes, and I
have since read that these grapes typically run quite high in acidity.
This makes me question the results of the test, and now I am concerned
that I ruined the wine. How long will it take for me to know? Can it
be remedied by potassium bicarbonate?

How much wine are you talking about and what do you mean by 36%?

Acid is either measured in g/l or percent, typical reds are either 6g/l
or 0.6%. Foch is almost always high in acid; I never did one that was
low. Taste it. Get back to us with how you tested or the values. I'm
assuming you meant 0.36% wich sounds wrong for any hybrid grown in OH,
NY or PA. Maybe other areas get them riper.

Joe

It's only a gallon of wine (new vines) and sorry about the typo, 0.36%
is right. It tastes pretty good right now, considering it has only
been fermenting for a couple of days. I hope it's ok. To get the
acidity level, we used an acid titration kit, but we were unable to get
a complete color change, even after using 6 ccs of sodium hydroxide,
and by that point, the color we got was wrong according to the
instructions. So we went with the point at which we got as much of a
color change (to the right color) as possible. Obviously not the best
way to go.

Zahra

Zahra,
Well, your taste is a good reality check any time the equipment seems
to make no sense. That sounds like it should have brought your acid up
to around 0.6% so you should be ok, especially if it tastes ok. Were
these REALLY ripe grapes originally, very sweet but no tartness?

Grapes from new vines are ok to use but don't be disappointed if it's
not exactly what you want in the end. It takes 5 to 7 years for a
vine to produce well.

Joe

Zahra - red wine is hard to titrate by itself. I would take the 15 mL
(as per the kit instructins) and dillute it way out into deionized
water (now there will be some buffering capacity to the water it is
never completely pure, but for wine it will be ok you will not get
messed too much).

So this way the red color of the wine will be washed out. and you can
see the color change better.