I have 4 buckets of merlot with 4.5gal in them All crushed from 6 cases
of grapes. I only measured 2 of the buckets.
I have 2 12 gals and 1 40gal of Zinfandel

Yesterday I added meta, nutrient and pectin enzyme (for color extraction
I stirred the musts up this morning, and strained the juice for my readings

Bucket 1 Merlot 4.5gal
pH 3.90
SG 1.140 (I checked this twice)
TA .765

Bucket 2 Merlot 4.5gal
pH 3.87
SG .900
TA .68

Tank 1 Zin 12gal
pH 3.77
SG .900
TA .675

Tank 2 Zin 40gal
pH 3.75
SG .850
TA .665

"Fishhead" > wrote in message
...
>I have 4 buckets of merlot with 4.5gal in them All crushed from 6 cases of
>grapes. I only measured 2 of the buckets.
> I have 2 12 gals and 1 40gal of Zinfandel
>
> Yesterday I added meta, nutrient and pectin enzyme (for color extraction
> I stirred the musts up this morning, and strained the juice for my
> readings
>
> Bucket 1 Merlot 4.5gal
> pH 3.90
> SG 1.140 (I checked this twice)
> TA .765

Holy smoke, that's 33° Brix! No wonder you have pH problems with it.

If that were my must I'd get the pH down to 3.5 - 3.6 or so (be sure to
taste it while doing this). Never mind the TA. The excess will drop out as
bitartrate later on in the cellaring - especially if you chill it.

FWIW, the other 3 are already wine - not must.

Tom S

Do you mean 1.090?
>
> Bucket 2 Merlot 4.5gal
> pH 3.87
> SG .900
> TA .68
>
> Tank 1 Zin 12gal
> pH 3.77
> SG .900
> TA .675
>
> Tank 2 Zin 40gal
> pH 3.75
> SG .850
> TA .665

Tom S wrote:
> "Fishhead" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>I have 4 buckets of merlot with 4.5gal in them All crushed from 6 cases of
>>grapes. I only measured 2 of the buckets.
>>I have 2 12 gals and 1 40gal of Zinfandel
>>
>>Yesterday I added meta, nutrient and pectin enzyme (for color extraction
>>I stirred the musts up this morning, and strained the juice for my
>>readings
>>
>>Bucket 1 Merlot 4.5gal
>>pH 3.90
>>SG 1.140 (I checked this twice)
>>TA .765
>
>
> Holy smoke, that's 33° Brix! No wonder you have pH problems with it.
>
> If that were my must I'd get the pH down to 3.5 - 3.6 or so (be sure to
> taste it while doing this). Never mind the TA. The excess will drop out as
> bitartrate later on in the cellaring - especially if you chill it.
>
> FWIW, the other 3 are already wine - not must.
>
> Tom S
>
>
I made an error... the others are 1.090

Joe Sallustio wrote:
> Do you mean 1.090?

Yes I did!!!!


>
>>Bucket 2 Merlot 4.5gal
>>pH 3.87
>>SG .900
>>TA .68
>>
>>Tank 1 Zin 12gal
>>pH 3.77
>>SG .900
>>TA .675
>>
>>Tank 2 Zin 40gal
>>pH 3.75
>>SG .850
>>TA .665
>
>

I adjusted the Zin to add .1 TA.
My new numbers are
TA .76
pH 3.51

I am out of acid.... I am going to try to get more tommorow for the Merlot.




>
> Holy smoke, that's 33° Brix! No wonder you have pH problems with it.
>
> If that were my must I'd get the pH down to 3.5 - 3.6 or so (be sure to
> taste it while doing this). Never mind the TA. The excess will drop out as
> bitartrate later on in the cellaring - especially if you chill it.
>
> FWIW, the other 3 are already wine - not must.
>
> Tom S
>
>

"Fishhead" > wrote in message
...
>I adjusted the Zin to add .1 TA.
> My new numbers are
> TA .76
> pH 3.51
>
> I am out of acid.... I am going to try to get more tommorow for the
> Merlot.

Time's a wastin'! You want to get that in there ASAP.

Tom S

Ok, but use tartaric only if all you want to do is swing pH. Now that
they have started fermenting you may want to remeasure; my acids always
seem to rise a bit post fermentation. just boil the juice sample for a
few seconds prior to reading to drive off the CO2. The right way to do
it is to pull a 50 ml sample, heat to 180-212 F for several seconds;
cool and add distilled water to make up any volume lost. CO2 affects
both pH and TA.

My central valley Merlot from grapes was high too, 1.107 and a TA of
5.2. I added a few teaspoons of tartaric to 6 gallons, it's a little
overly tart now but pH near 4 seems like it need attention.

Joe

My wines are almost dry... I should have pressed on Wed... but now they
will wait till Sat.
I pulled my samples, boiled them for a few seconds then chilled them to
room temp.

Merlot
pH 3.68
SG 1.010
TA .73


Zinfandel
pH 3.55
SG 1.015
TA .71

Fishhead wrote:
> I have 4 buckets of merlot with 4.5gal in them All crushed from 6 cases
> of grapes. I only measured 2 of the buckets.
> I have 2 12 gals and 1 40gal of Zinfandel
>
> Yesterday I added meta, nutrient and pectin enzyme (for color extraction
> I stirred the musts up this morning, and strained the juice for my readings
>
> Bucket 1 Merlot 4.5gal
> pH 3.90
> SG 1.140 (I checked this twice)
> TA .765
>
> Bucket 2 Merlot 4.5gal
> pH 3.87
> SG .900
> TA .68
>
> Tank 1 Zin 12gal
> pH 3.77
> SG .900
> TA .675
>
> Tank 2 Zin 40gal
> pH 3.75
> SG .850
> TA .665